Bulletin No. 4.— New Series, Revised Edition. 

-U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 

DIVISION OF ENTOMOLOGY. 

QL 

-H8 THE PRINCIPAL 

i9oa 
HOUSEHOLD INSECTS 



UNITED STATES. 

BY 

Ij. O. HOWARD AND C. J^. MAllLATT. 

WITH A CHAPTER ON 

INSECTS AFFECTING DRY VEGETABLE FOODS 

BY 

F. H. CHITTE^TDElSr. 




WASHINGTON: 

GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE 

190 2. 




Glass QL467 

Book Ml 



Bulletin No. 4.— New Series, Revised Edition. 

U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE, 

DIVISION OF ENTOMOLOGY. 



THE PRINCIPAL 



HOUSEHOLD INSECTS 



OF THE 



UNITED STATES, 



Jj. O. HOWARD AXD C. L. MARLATT. 



WITH A CHAPTER ON 



INSECTS AFFECTING DRY VEGETABLE FOODS. 



F. H. CHITTENDEN. 




WASHINGTON. 

GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE 

1 9 2 . 



A. 



&\4 



& 



* 



\ 






LETTER OF TRANSMITTAL TO REVISED EDITION. 



U. S. Department of Agriculture, 

Division of Entomology, 

Washington, B. C, May 24,' 1899. 
Sir : I have the honor to submit for publication the accompanying 
slightly revised copy of Bulletin No. 4, New Series, of this division, 
containing an account of the principal household insects of the United 
States. It will be substantially a reprint of the first edition, which 
was published nearly three years ago, a few comparatively unimportant 
corrections having been made, and a few short paragraphs having been 
added. Thus it is by no means a complete revision. 
Respectfully, 

L. (). Howard, 

Entomologist. 
Hon. James Wilson, 

Secretary of Agriculture. 









CONTENTS. 



Page. 

Introduction 7 

Chapter I. — Mosquitoes and fleas. (By L. O. Howard) 9 

Mosquitoes (Culicidw spp.) 9 

The cat and dog flea (Pulex serraticeps Gerv.) 24 

Chapter II. — The bedbug and cone-nose. (By C. L. Marlatt) 32 

The "bedbug ( Cimex lectularius Linn. ) 32 

The blood-sucking cone-nose ( Conorhinus sanguisuga Lee.) 38 

Chapter III. — House flies, centipedes, and other insects that are 
annoying rather than directly injurious. (By L. O. Howard and 

C L. Marlatt) 43 

House flies (Musea domestica, et al.). (L. O. H. ) 43 

The house centipede (Scutigera forceps Raf.). (C L. M.) 47 

The clover mite (Bryobia pratensis Garm.). (C. L. M.) 51 

The house ciicket (Gryllus domesticus Linn). (C. L. M.) '. 52 

The paper wasp ( Vespa germanica Fab.). (C.L. M.) 56 

Chapter IV. — Species injurious to woolen goods, clothing, carpets, 

upholstery, etc. (By L. O. Howard and C. L. Marlatt) 58 

The carpet beetle or "buffalo moth" (Anthrenus scropliularice Linn.). 

(L.O.H.) 58 

The black carpet beetle (Attagenus pieeus 01.). (L.O.H.) 61 

The clothes moths (Tinea pellionella, et al.) (C.L. M.) 63 

Chapter V. — Species injurious to wall paper, books, timber, etc. (By 

C.L. Marlatt) 70 

The white ant ( Termes flavipes Koll. ) 70 

The silver fish (Lepisma saccharina Linn.) '76 

The book louse (Atropos divinatoria Fab.) 79 

The American spring-tail (Lepidocyrtus americanus Marl. ) 81 

Chapter VI.— Cockroaches and house ants. (By C. L. Marlatt) 84 

Cockroaches (Periplaneta americana, et al.) 84 

House ants (Monomorium pharaonis, et al.) 95 

Chapter VIL— Some insects affecting cheese, hams, fruit, and vinegar. 

(By L. 0. Howard) 100 

The cheese, ham, and flour mites ( Tyroglyphus longior and Tyroglyphus siro) . 100 

The cheese skipper or ham skipper (Piophila casei Linn) 102 

The red-legged ham beetle (Necrooia rufipes Fab.) 105 

The larder beetle (Dermestes lardarius Linn.) 107 

The fruit flies or vinegar flies (Drosophila spp.) 109 

Chapter VIII. — Insects affecting cereals and other dry vegetable 

foods. (By F. H. Chittenden) 112 

The flour beetles. .• 112 

The meal-worms 115 

The meal moths 118 

The grain beetles 120 

The drug-store beetle and its allies 124 

Species of occasional occurrence in vegetable stores 128 

3 



ILLUSTRATIONS. 



Page. 

Fig. 1. — Culex pungens : adult 10 

2. — Culex pungens : eggs and young larvae 11 

3. — Culex pungens : head of larva 13 

4. — Culex pungens : larva and pupa 15 

5. — Pulex serraticeps : egg. adult, etc 25 

6. — Pulex serraticeps : larva 27 

7. — Cimex lectularius : adult , 32 

8. — Cimex lectularius : egg and young larva 33 

9. — Cimex lectularius : larval stages 35 

10. — Conorhinus sanguisuga : pupa and adults 39 

11. — Conorhinus sanguisuga : larva and egg 40 

12. — Conorhinus sanguisuga : head, showing mouth-parts 41 

13. — Musca domestica : adult, puparium, etc 43 

14. — Musca domestica : larva 45 

15. — Musca domestica : pupa 46 

16. — Scutigera forceps : adult 48 

17. — Scutigera forceps : larva 49 

18. — Bryohia pratensis : females and details 51 

19. — Bryobia pratensis : larva 52 

20. — Gryllus domesticus : adult 53 

21. — Gryllus assimilis : adult 54 

22. — Gryllus assimilis : wings 55 

23. — Anthrenus scrophulariaa : all stages 58 

24. — Attagenus piceus : all stages 61 

25. — Tinea pellionella : adult and larva 63 

26. — Tineola biselliella : adult, larva, and cocoon 66 

27. — Trichophaga tapetzella : adult moth 67 

28. — Termes flavipes : male and female 70 

29. — Termes flavipes : head of winged female 72 

30. — Termes flavipes : newly hatched larva and egg 73 

31. — Termes flavipes : different forms 74 

32. — Lepisma saccharina : adult 76 

33. — Lepisma domesti ca : adult 77 

34. — Atropos divinatoria : adult 79 

35. — Lepidocyrtus americanus : adult, dorsal view 82 

36. — Lepidocyrtus americanus : adult, ventral view 82 

37. — Lepidocyrtus americanus : adult, lateral view 83 

38. — Periplaneta americana : adult 84 

39. — Periplaneta americana : egg capsule 89 

40. — Periplaneta australasiae : adult and pupa 91 

41. — Periplaneta orientalis : different forms 92 

42. — Phyllodromia germanica : various stages 92 

43. — Monomorium pharaonis : female and worker 96 

44. — Monomorium minutum : male, female, and worker 97 

5 



► ILLUSTRATIONS. 

Page. 

Fig. 45. — Tetramorium csespitum : different forms 98 

46. — Tyroglyphus longior : male and female 100 

47. — Tyroglyphus siro : female 101 

48. — Piophila casei : different forms 103 

49. — Necrobia rufipes : larva and adult 105 

50. — Dermestes lardarius : larva, pupa, and adult 108 

51. — Drosophila ampelophila : different stages ... 110 

52. — Tribolium confusum and ferrugineum : different stages 113 

53. — Echocerus cornutus : adult male 115 

54. — Tenebrio molitor : different stages 116 

55. — Tenebrio obscurus : adult male 118 

56. — Plodia interpunctella : different stages 119 

57. — Pyralis farinalis : adult moth, etc 119 

58. — Pyralis farinalis : eggs, larva, etc 120 

59. — Silvanus surinamensis : larva, pupa, and adult 121 

60. — Tenebroides mauritanicus : larva, pupa, and adult 123 

61. — Sitodrepa panicea : larva, pupa, and adult 124 

62. — Sitodrepa panicea : head of larva 125 

63. — Lasioderma serricorne : larva, pupa, and adult 126 

64. — Lasioderma serricorne : bead of larva 126 



INTRODUCTION. 



On an average, from 500 to 600 letters of inquiry are received at this 
office each month. A very considerable number of these inquiries 
relate to insects which are found in houses and which either annoy the 
occupants by their direct attacks or are injurious to household goods 
and provisions. The available literature on this class of insects is not 
extensive. Prof. C. H. Eernald, of the Massachusetts Agricultural 
Experiment Station, published a short bulletin on the general subject 
some three years ago, but only a few of the most prominent insects of 
this class were treated. Other American articles are scattered in 
various publications, in the reports of the State entomologists and 
bulletins of the entomologists of the State agricultural experiment 
stations, and in the entomological and other scientific journals. A 
small volume was published in England in 1893, which bears the title 
of Our Household Insects, by Mr. Edward A. Butler, a competent 
entomologist, who has brought together a mass of interesting facts. 
This little volume, however, treats of English insects only. There is 
abundant room, then, for the present publication. Much that is pre- 
sented herewith is based upon original observations in the office, and all 
accessible publications upon the species treated have been consulted. 
As will be observed from the title-page, the preparation of the bulletin 
has been the joint work of the writer and of Messrs. Marlatt and Chit- 
tenden. Mr. Chittenden's work has been confined to a concluding 
chapter on the subject of the species that affect dry vegetable foods, a 
labor for which he is particularly well fitted by reason of his long 
study of these species. There has been no systematic division in the 
work of the main portion of the bulletin between the writer and Mr. 
Marlatt. Each of us has chosen the topics in which he felt especially 
interested. It results that longer or shorter articles by one or the 
other are arranged according to the proper position of the topic in the 
scheme as a whole and are not brought together under the respective 
authors. The authorship of the individual articles, however, may be 
readily accredited by the fact that not only is it displayed in the table 
of contents, but by the further fact that the contributions are initialed 
in every case. 

The very curious but not unexpected condition has been shown in 
the preparation of this bulletin that of some of our commonest house 
hold insects the life history is not known with any degree of exactness. 

7 



8 INTRODUCTION. 

Of such common species as the household centipede (Scutiger a forceps) 
and the " silver fish" or u slicker" (Lepisma spp.) careful studies yet 
remain to be made, and it is hoped that one of the incidental benefits 
which will result from the publication of this bulletin will be this indi- 
cation of topics of desired investigation to students. The illustrations 
have all been made by Miss Sullivan, with the exception of those of 
the cheese skipper and ham beetles and the house centipede, which 
have been prepared by Mr. Otto Heidemann. All drawings have been 
made under the supervision of the author of the section in which they 
appear. 

L. O. H. 



THE PRINCIPAL HOUSEHOLD INSECTS 

OF THE 

UNITED STATES. 



CHAPTEB I. 

MOSQUITOES AND FLEAS. 

Bv L. O. Howard. 



MOSQUITOES. 
[Culi&dcB spp.) 



Although mosquitoes are out of-door insects, they may be considered 
appropriately under the head of household pests, for the reason that 
they enter houses, to the torment of the inhabitants, all through the 
summer months, and many of them pass the winter in cellars. In fact, 
it is probably safe to say that no distinctive household pest causes as 
much annoyance as the mosquito. 

We are accustomed to think and speak of the mosquito as if there 
were but one species; yet. to our knowledge, there are no less than 
eight species, for example, which are more or less common in the Dis- 
trict of Columbia, and the writer has noticed at New Orleans, La., 
certainly four different species at the same season of the year, while at 
Christmas time a fifth species, smaller than the others, causes consid- 
erable trouble in the houses of that city. In Trinidad Mr. TJrich states 
that he has observed at least ten different species, while Dr. Williston 
has described several from the island of St. Vincent. In his Catalogue 
of the Diptera of North America Baron Osten Sacken records twenty - 
one from North America, and it is perhaps safe to say that not half of 
the species are described. In the collection of the United States 
National Museuin there are twenty distinct species, all of which have 
been authentically determined by Mr. Coquillett. 

The common species at Washington in the months of May and June 
is Culex pun gens Wied. I say the common species, but do not wish to 
be understood as saying that mosquitoes are common in Washington at 
that time of the year. As a matter of fact, the city is singularly free 
from this little pest, and this is largely due to the reclamation of the 
marshes of the Potomac Eiver, which in war times and for a number 
of years afterwards caused the inhabitants of this city to suffer severely 
from this insect. As late as 1875, it is said, it was almost impossible 
to spend any of the night hours near the marshes without smudges. 
Later in the season other species become abundant. 

9 



10 



PEINCIPAL HOUSEHOLD INSECTS. 



The writer, in the course of certain observations, has carried C. pun- 
gens through approximately two generations in the early part of the 
season. It is strange that recent and definite observations upon accu- 





Fig. 1. — Culex pungeru : a, female, from side; b, male, from above; c, front tarsus of same; d, middle 
tarsus ; e, hind tarsus ; /, genitalia of same ; g, scales from hind border of wing ; h, scales from disk 
of wing — enlarged (original). 



rately determined species of many of our commonest insects have not 
been published. This is mainly due to the fact that most entomologists 
have a way of saving time by following the observations of older writers. 



MOSQUITOES AND FLEAS. 



11 



This is all well enough where the species and the conditions are identi- 
cal, but when, as is the case with such an insect as that under observa- 
tion, the principal observations were made upon a different, though 
congeneric, species, and in another part of the globe, where climatic 
and other conditions differ, the custom is unfortunate. There is not, in 
any of our published works, a thoroughly satisfactory figure of a well- 
determined species of mosquito, or of its earlier stages. The statements 
quoted in the text-books and manuals date back, in general, to the time 
of Reaumur, one hundred and fifty years ago. These observations were 
made in the month of May, upon a species (Culex pipiens) which does 
not occur in Xorth America, and in the one locality of Paris, France. 
The notes made upon C.pungens at Washington x^ossess, therefore, some 
scientific importance. 




Fig. 2. — Culex pung ens : Egg-masa above in center; yonng larva, greatly enlarged, at right; young 
larvae, not so much enlarged, below ; enlarged eggs above at left (original). 



The operation of egg-laying was not observed, but it probably takes 
place in the very early morning hours. The eggs are laid in the usual 
boat-shaped mass, just as those of C. pipiens, as described by Reaumur. 
We say boat-shaped mass, because that is the ordinary expression. As 
a matter of fact, however, the egg masses are of all sorts of shapes. 
The most common one is the pointed ellipse, convex below and concave 
above, all the eggs perpendicular, in six to thirteen longitudinal rows, 
with from 3 or 4 to 40 eggs in a row. The number of eggs in each batch 
varies from 200 to 400. As seen from above, the egg-mass is gray brown j 
from below, silvery white, the latter appearance being due to the air 
film. It seems impossible to wet these egg masses. They may be 
pushed under water, but bob up, apparently as dry as ever. The egg 
mass separates rather regularly and the eggs are not stuck together 



12 PRINCIPAL HOUSEHOLD INSECTS. 

very firmly. After they have hatched the mass will disintegrate in a 
few days, even in perfectly still water. 

The individual eggs are 0.7 mm. in length and 0.16 mm. in diameter 
at the base. They are slender, broader and blunt at bottom, slenderer 
and somewhat pointed at tip. The tip is always dark grayish brown in 
color, while the rest of the egg is dirty white. Repeated observations 
show that the eggs hatch, under advantageous conditions, certainly as 
soon as sixteen hours. Water buckets containing no egg masses, placed 
out at night, were found to contain egg masses at 8 o'clock in the morning, 
which, as above stated, were probably laid in the early morning, before 
daylight. These eggs, the third week in May, began to hatch quite 
regularly at 2 o'clock in the after noon of the same day on warm days. 
In cooler weather they sometimes remained unhatched until the second 
day. If we apply the evidence of European observers to this species, 
the period of the egg state may be under twelve hours; but there is a 
possibility that they are laid earlier in the night, which accounts for the 
fact that sixteen hours is the shortest period which we can definitely 
mention. 

The larvae issue from the underside of the egg masses, and are ex- 
tremely active at birth. When first observed it is easy to fall into an 
error regarding the length of time which they can remain under water, 
or rather without coming to the surface to breathe, since, in striving to 
come to the surface for air, many of them will strike the underside of 
the egg mass and remain there for many minutes. It is altogether 
likely, however, that they get air at this point through the eggs or 
through the air film by which the egg mass is surrounded, and that 
they are as readily drowned by continuous immersion as are the older 
ones, as will be shown later. 

One of the first peculiarities which strikes one on observing these 
newly hatched larvae under the lens is that the tufts of filaments which 
are conspicuous at the mouth are in absolutely constant vibration. 
This peculiarity, and the wriggling of the larvae through the water, and 
their great activity, render them interesting objects of study. In gen- 
eral, the larvae, passing through apparently three different stages, reach 
maturity and transform to pupae in a minimum of seven days. When 
nearly full grown their movements were studied with more care, as 
they were easier to observe than when newly hatched. At this time 
the larva remains near the surface of the water, with its respiratory 
siphon at the exact surface and its mouth filaments in constant vibra 
tion, directing food into the mouth cavity. Occasionally the larva 
descends to the bottom, but, though repeatedly timed, a healthy indi- 
vidual was never seen to remain voluntarily below the surface more 
than a minute. In ascending it comes up with an effort, with a series 
of jerks and wrigglings with its tail. It descends without effort, but 
ascends with difficulty; in other words, its specific gravity seems to be 
greater than that of the water. As soon, however, as the respiracory 



MOSQUITOES AND FLEAS. 



13 



siphon reaches the surface, fresh air flows into its trachea?, and the 
physical properties of the so-called surface film of the water assist it 
in maintaining its position. 

In the first edition of this work the writer erroneously attributed an 
error to Prof. L. G. Miall in regard to the ninth body segment with its 
terminal flaps. This was due to a wrong reading of Professor MialPs 
accurate book on aquatic insects. 

The respiratory tube takes its origin from the tip of the eighth abdomi- 
nal segment, and the very large trachea? can be seen extending to its 
extremity, where they have a double orifice. The ninth segment of 
the abdomen is armed at the tip with four flaps and six hairs, as shown 
in fig. 4. These flaps are gill-like in appearance, though they are prob- 
ably simply locomotory in function. With so remarkably developed an 




Tig. Z. — Culex pungens: Head of larva from below at left; same from above at right — greatly enlarged 

(original). 

apparatus for direct air breathing there is no necessity for gill struct- 
ures. Raschke 1 and Hurst 2 consider that the larva breathes both by 
the anus and by these gill flaps, as well as by the large tracheae which, 
open at the tip of the respiratory tube. Raschke considers that these 
tracheae are so unnecessarily large that they possess a hydrostatic 
function. The writer is inclined to believe that the gill flaps may be 
functional as branchial structures in the young larva, but that they 
largely lose this office in later life. 

After seven or eight days, at a minimum, as just stated, the larva 
transforms to pupa. The pupa, as has been repeatedly i:>ointed out 
with other species, differs most pronouncedly from the larva in the 
great swelling of the thoracic segments. In this stage the insect is 



■ Raschke, Die Larve von Culex nemorosus, Berlin, 1887. 
2 Hurst, The Pupal Stage of Culex, Manchester, 1890. 



14 PEINCIPAL HOUSEHOLD INSECTS. 

lighter than water. It remains motionless at the surface, and when 
disturbed does not sink without effort, as does the larva, but is only 
able to descend by a violeut muscular action. It wriggles and swims 
as actively as does the larva, and soon reaches the bottom of the jar 
or breeding place. As soon as it ceases to exert itself, however, it 
floats gradually up to the surface of the water again. The fact, how- 
ever, that the larva, after it is once below the surface of the water, sinks 
rather than rises, accounts for the death of many individuals. If they 
become sick or weak, or for auy reason are unable to exert sufficient 
muscular force to wriggle to the surface at frequent intervals, they will 
actually drown, and the writer has seen many of them die in this way, 
It seems almost like a contradiction in terms to speak of an aquatic 
insect drowning, but this is a frequent cause of mortality among wrig- 
glers. This fact also explains the efficacy of the remedial treatment 
which causes the surface of the water to become covered with a film of 
oil of any kind. Aside from the actual insecticide effect of the oil, the 
larva3 drown from not being able to reach the air. The structure of the 
pupa differs in no material respect from that of corresponding stages 
of European species, as so admirably figured and described by the older 
writers, notably Reaumur and Swammerdam, 1 and needs no description 
in view of the care with which the figures accompanying this article 
have been drawn. The air tubes no longer open at the anal end of the 
body, but through two trumpet-shaped sclerites on the thorax, from 
which it results that the pupa remains upright at the surface, instead 
of with the head downward. There is a very apparent object in this 
reversal of the position of the body, since the adult insect issues from 
the thorax and needs the floating skin to support itself while its wings 
are expanding. 

In general, the adult insects issue from the pupa? that are two days 
old. This gives what is probably the minimum generation for this 
species as ten days, namely, sixteen to twenty-four hours for the egg, 
seven days for the larva, and two days for the pupa. The individuals 
emerging on the first day were invariably males. On the second day 
the great majority were males, but there were also a few females. The 
preponderance of males continued to hold for three days; later the 
females were in the majority. In confinement the males died quickly: 
several lived for four days, but none for more than that period. The 
females, however, lived for a much longer time. Some were kept alive 
without food, in a confined space of not more than 4 inches deep by 6 
across, for three weeks. But one egg mass was deposited in confine- 
ment. This was deposited on the morning of June 30 by a female which 
issued from the pupa June 27. No further observations were made 
upon the time elapsing between the emergence of the female and the 
laying of the eggs, but in no case, probably, does it exceed a few days. 



1 Even Bonanni, in 1691, gave very fair figures of the larva and pupa of a European 
species. Micrographia Curiosa, Konie, MDCXCI, Pars. II, Tab. I. 



MOSQUITOES AND FLEAS. 



15 



The length of time which elapses for a generation, which we have 
just mentioned, is almost indefinitely enlarged if the weather be cool. 
As a matter of fact, a long spell of cool weather followed the issuing of 
the adults just mentioned. Larvae were watched for twenty days, dur- 
ing which time they did not reach full growth. 

The extreme shortness of this June generation is significant. It 
accounts for the fact that swarms of mosquitoes may develop upon 
occasion in surface pools of rain water, which may dry up entirely in 




Fig. 4. 



■Culexpungens: Full-grovn larva at left; pupa at right above, its anal segment belfrw— all 
greatly enlarged (original). 



the course of two weeks, or in a chance bucket of water left undis- 
turbed for that length of time. Further, the shortness of this genera- 
tion was, while not unexpected, not at all in accordance with any pub- 
lished statements as to the length of life of any immature mosquito of 
any species. But these published statements, as previously shown, 
were nearly all based upon observations made in a colder climate and 
in the month of May. 

On August 1 Mr. F. C. Pratt, an assistant in the division of euro- 



16 PRINCIPAL HOUSEHOLD INSECTS. 

niology, brought in from Lakeland, Md., a small place 9 miles from 
Washington, specimens of a large and very ferocious mosquito, which 
Mr. Coquillett determined as Anopheles quadrimaculatus Say, a species 
which had previously been observed at Washington in August. This 
mosquito was very abundant at Lakeland at the time, and its eggs 
were obtained, but rearing operations were interrupted by absence from 
Washington. At the same time the commonest of the mosquitoes 
at Washington was found to be Culex consobrinus. This latter species 
was one which was studied by the writer in 1892 in the Catskill Moun- 
tains, near Tannersville, Greene County, 23". T. This species in Wash- 
ington became, during August, more abundant than C.pungens. Octo- 
ber 25, however, the writer found both species in his house, which they 
had evidently entered for hibernation. In 1893 several specimens of 
ptingens were taken in the month of January in the cellar of his house 
in Georgetown. This hibernation in cellars as well as in outhouses 
is very common, although it is not frequently referred to. Specimens 
of G. consobrinus were received in November, 1894, from J. M. Wade, of 
Boston, with the statement that they were abundant in his cellar in 
that city. The cellar was very cold, although in one corner there was 
a tin furnace pipe. The mosquitoes avoided the warm corner, and were 
always thickest in the cold parts of the cellar. So abundant were they 
that if a lamp were held up the inside of the chimney would soon be 
covered half an inch thick with their bodies. 

The degree of cold seems to make no difference with this successful 
hibernation. Arctic explorers have long since recorded the abundance 
of mosquitoes in the extreme north. In the narrative of 0. F. Hall's 
second arctic expedition the statement is made that mosquitoes appeared 
on the 7th of July, 1869, in extraordinary abundance. Dr. E. Sterling, 
of Cleveland, Ohio, has sent us an account of the appearance of mos- 
quitoes by thousands in March, 1844, when he was on a snowshoe trip 
from Mackinaw to Sault Ste. Marie. Their extraordinary numbers at 
this season of the year is remarkable, indicating a most plentiful 
hibernation. Mr. H. Stewart, of North Carolina, has written us of a 
similar experience on the north shore of Lake Superior in 1866. On 
warm days in March, when the snow was several feet deep and the ice 
on the lake 5 feet in thickness, mosquitoes appeared in swarms, "literally 
blackening the banks of snow in the sheltered places." The Indians 
told Mr. Stewart that the mosquitoes lived through the winter, and 
that the old ones were the most annoying to them. May 9, 1896, Mr. 
Lugger s$nt the writer from St. Anthony Park, Minn., specimens of C. 
consobrinus, stating that it came in a genuine swarm in April, with a 
heavy snowstorm, at a time when all of the lakes were covered with 
ice— "Minnesota's most certain crop." 

It is a well-known fact that the adult male mosquito does not neces- 
sarily take nourishment, and that the adult female does not necessarily 
rely upon the blood of warm-blooded animals. They are plant feeders 



MOSQUITOES AND FLEAS. 17 

and have also been recorded as feeding upon insects. Dr. Hagen men- 
tions taking a species in the Northwest feeding upon the chrysalis of a 
butterfly, while scattered through the seven volumes of Insect Life are 
a number of records of observations of a vegetarian habit, one writer 
stating that he has seen them with their beaks inserted in boiled 
potatoes on the table, and another that he has seen watermelon rinds 
with many mosquitoes settled upon them and busily engaged in sucking 
the juices. Mosquitoes undoubtedly feed normally on the juices of 
plants, and not one in a million ever gets an opportunity to taste the 
blood of a warm-blooded animal. When we think of the enormous 
tracts of marsh land into which warm-blooded animals never pene- 
trate, and in which mosquitoes are breeding in countless numbers, the 
truth of this statement becomes apparent. The males have been 
observed sipping at drops of water, and one instance of a fondness for 
molasses has been recorded. Mr. E. A. Schwarz has observed one 
drinking beer. 

The literature of popular entomology is full of instances of the enor- 
mous numbers in which mosquitoes occasionally occur, but a new 
instance may not be out of place here. Mr. Schwarz tells the writer 
that he has never seen, even in New Jersey, mosquitoes to compare in 
numbers with those at Corpus Christi, Tex. When the wind blows from 
any other direction than south, he says, hundreds of thousands of mil- 
lions of mosquitoes blow in upon the town. Great herds of hundreds 
of horses run before the mosquitoes in order to get to the water. With 
a change of wind, however, the mosquitoes blow away. 

REMEDIES AOAENST MOSQUITOES. 

Of the remedies in use in houses the burning of pyrethrum powder 
and the catching of the mosquitoes on the walls with kerosene in cups, 
as described in Insect Life (Vol. V, p. 143), are probably the best, next 
to a thorough screening aud mosquito bars about the bed. It may be of 
interest to mention incidentally a remedy in use among the Chinese, as 
recorded in Eobert Fortune's "Residence Among the Chinese: Scenes 
and Adventures Among the Chinese in 1853-1856" (London, 1857). 
Long-necked bags of paper, half an inch in diameter and 2 feet long, are 
filled with the following substances: Either pine or juniper sawdust, 
mixed with a small quantity of "nu-wang"' and 1 ounce of arsenic. 
These substances are well mixed and run into the bags in a dry state; 
each bag is coiled like a snake and wrapped and tied with thread. The 
outer end is lighted and the coil laid on a board. Two coils are suffi- 
cient for an ordinary sized room, and 100 coils sell for 6 cents. Mr. 
Mun Yen Chung, of the Chinese legation, has been good enough to inform 
the writer that by "nu-wang" Mr, Fortune probably meant liu-wang 
(brimstone). 

Altogether the most satisfactory ways of fighting mosquitoes are 
those which result in the destruction of the larvse or the abolition of 
21470— No. 4 2 



18 PRINCIPAL HOUSEHOLD INSECTS. 

their breeding places. In not every locality are these measures feasible, 
but in many places there is absolutely no necessity for the mosquito 
annoyance. The three main preventive measures are the draining of 
breeding places, the introduction of small fish into Ashless breeding 
places, and the treatment of such pools with kerosene. These are three 
alternatives, any one of which will be efficacious, and anyone of which 
may be used where there are reasons against the trial of the others. 

In 1892 the writer published the first account of extensive out of-doors 
experiments to determine the actual, effect upon the mosquitoes of a 
thin layer of kerosene upon the surface of water in breeding pools and 
the relative amount to be used. He showed the quantity of kerosene 
necessary for a given water surface, anil demonstrated further that 
not only are the larvae and pupse thereby destroyed almost immedi- 
ately, but that the female mosquitoes are not deterred from attempt- 
ing to oviposit upon the surface of the water, and that they are thus 
destroyed in large numbers before their eggs are laid. He also showed 
approximately the length of time for which one such treatment would 
remain operative. ISTo originality was claimed for the suggestion, but 
only for the more or less exact experimentation. The writer himself, 
as early as 18G7, had found that kerosene would kill mosquito larvae, 
and the same knowledge was probably put in practice, although without 
publicity, in other parts of the country. In fact, Mr. H. E. Weed states 
(Insect Life, Vol. VII, p. 212) that in the French quarter of New Orleans 
it has been a common practice for many years to place kerosene in the 
water tanks to lessen the numbers of mosquitoes in a given locality, 
although he knew nothing that had been written to show that such was 
the case, and he says: "In this age of advancement we can no longer 
go by hearsay evidence." Suggestions as to the use of kerosene, and 
even experiments on a water surface 10 inches square, showing that 
the larvae could be killed by kerosene, were recorded by Mrs. C. B. 
Aaron in her Lamborn prize essay and published in the work entitled 
" Dragon Flies versus Mosquitoes " (D. Appleton & Co., 1890). Mr. W. 
Beutenmiiller also in the same work made the same suggestion. 

The quantity of kerosene to be practically used, as shown by the 
writer's experiments, is approximately 1 ounce to 15 square feet of 
water surface, and ordinarily the application need not be renewed for 
one month. Since 1892 several demonstrations, on both a large and a 
small scale, have been made. Two localities were rid of the mosquito 
plague under the supervision of the writer by the use of kerosene 
alone. Mr. Weed, in tbe article above mentioned, states that he rid 
the college campus of the Mississippi Agricultural College of mosquitoes 
by the treatment with kerosene of eleven large water tanks. Dr. John 
B. Smith has recorded, though without details, success with this remedy 
in two cases on Long Island (Insect Life, Vol. VI, p. 91). Prof. J. H. 
Comstock tells the writer that a similar series of experiments, with 
perfectly satisfactory results, was carried out by Mr. Vernon L. Kel- 
logg on the campus of Stanford University, at Palo Alto, Cal. In this 



MOSQUITOES AND FLEAS. 19 

case post holes filled with surface water were treated, with the result 
that the mosquito plague was almost immediately alleviated. 

Additional experiments on a somewhat larger scale have been made 
by Bev. John D. Long at Oak Island Beach. Long Island Sound, and 
by Mr. W. E. Hopson. near Bridgeport. Conn., also on the shores of 
Long Island Sound, the experiments in both cases indicating the effi- 
cacy of the remedy when applied intelligently. I have not been able 
to learn the details of Mr. Hopson's operations, but am told that they 
included extensive draining as well as the use of kerosene. 

It is not, however, the great sea marshes along the coast, where mos- 
quitoes breed in countless numbers, which we can expect to treat by 
this method, but the inland places, where the mosquito supply is derived 
from comparatively small swamps and circumscribed pools. In most 
localities people endure the torment or direct their remedies against 
the adult insect only, without the slightest attempt to investigate the 
source of the supply, when the very first step should be the undertak- 
ing of such an investigation. In -Gleanings in Bee Culture" (October 
1. 1895) we notice the statement in the California column that in some 
California torcms the pit or vault behind water-closets is subject to 
Hushing Avith water during the irrigation of the land near by. A 
period of several weeks elapses before more water is turned in, and in 
the meantime the water becomes stagnant and the breeding place of 
millions of mosquitoes. Then, as the correspondent says, ••people go 
around wondering where all the mosquitoes come from, put up screens, 
burn buhach, and make a great fuss." Nothing could be easier than 
to pour an ounce of kerosene into each of these pits, and all danger 
from mosquitoes will have passed. 

In many houses in Baltimore. Md.. the sewage drains first into wells 
or sinks in the backyard, and thence in some cases into sewers, and in 
other cases is pumped out periodically. These wells invariably have 
open privies built over them, and the mosquitoes, which breed in the 
stagnant contents of the siuks, have free egress into the open air back 
of the houses. Hence parts of Baltimore much further removed from 
either running or stagnant water than certain parts of Washington, 
where no mosquitoes are found, are terribly mosquito ridden, and sleep 
without mosquito bars is. from May to December, almost impossible. 
Specimens of Cule.r pungens captured Xovember 5 in such a privy as 
described have been brought to the writer from Baltimore by one of his 
assistants, Mr. B. M. Beese. 

Kerosene has been tried by Mr. Beese in one case in Baltimore, and 
two treatments of a privy made about May 1 and June 1, respectively? 
seemed to dimmish the numbers of the pest in that particular house : 
but without concerted action of all the householders in a given block 
(all the houses, be it remembered, being exactly alike in the method of 
sewage disposal) no great amount of good could be accomplished. 
With such concerted action, however, there seems to be no reason why 



20 PRINCIPAL HOUSEHOLD INSECTS. 

the mosquito plague could not be greatly diminished in many, if not 
most, parts of Baltimore at a very small expense. Usually one well 
serves two houses, the privies being built in pairs, so that one treatment 
would suffice for two dwellings. 

On ponds of any size the quickest and most perfect method of form- 
ing a film of kerosene will be to spray the oil over the surface of the 
water. 

The remedy which depends upon draining breeding places needs no 
extended discussion. Naturally the draining off of the water of pools 
will prevent mosquitoes from breeding there, and the possibility of 
such draining and the means by which it may be done will vary with 
each individual case. The writer is informed that an elaborate bit of 
work which has been done at Virginia Beach bears on this method. 
Behind the hotels at this place, the hotels themselves fronting upon 
the beach, was a large fresh- water lake, which, with its adjoining 
swamps, was a source of mosquito supply, and it was farther feared 
that it made the neighborhood malarious. Two canals were cut from 
the lake to the ocean, and by means of machinery the water of the 
lake was changed from a body of fresh to a body of salt water. Water 
that is somewhat brackish will support mosquitoes, but water which 
is purely salt will destroy them. 

The introduction of fish into fishless breeding places is another mat- 
ter. It may be undesirable to treat certain breeding places with kero- 
sene, as, for instance, water which is intended for drinking, although 
this has been done without harm in tanks where, as is customary, the 
drinking supply is drawn from the bottom of the tank. An interesting 
case noted in Insect Life (Vol. IV, p. 223), in which a pair of carp was 
placed in each of several tanks, in the Riviera, is a case in point. The 
value of most small fishes for the purpose of destroying mosquito 
larva* was well indicated by an experience described to us by Mr. 
C. H. Russell, of Bridgeport, Conn. In this case a very high tide broke 
away a dike and flooded the salt meadows of Stratford, a small town 
a few miles from Bridgeport. The receding tide left two small lakes, 
nearly side by side and of the same size. In one lake the tide left a 
dozen or more small fishes, while the other was fishless. An examination 
by Mr. Russell in the summer of 1891 showed that while the fishless 
lake contained tens of thousands of mosquito larvae, that containing 
the fish had no larvse. 

The use of carp for this purpose has been mentioned in the preceding 
paragraph, but most small fish will answer as well. The writer knows 
of none that will be better than either of the common little stickle- 
backs ( Gasterosteus aculeatus or Pygosteus pungitius). They are small, 
but very active and very voracious. Mr. F. W. Urich, of Trinidad, 
has written us that there is a little cyprinoid common in that island 
which answers admirably for this purpose. This fish has not been 
specifically determined, but we hope to make an effort to introduce it 



MOSQUITOES AND FLEAS. 21 

into our Southern States, if it proves to be new to our fauna. At Bee- 
ville, Tex., a little fish is used for this purpose which is there called a 
perch, although we have not been able to find out just what the species 
is. They soon eat up the mosquito larvae, however, and in order to keep 
them alive the people adopt an ingenious fly trap, which they keep in 
their houses and in which about a quart of flies a day is caught. These 
flies are then fed to the fish. This makes a little circle which strikes 
us as particularly ingenious and pleasant. The fly traps catch the 
flies and rid the house of that pest. The flies are fed to the fish in 
the water tanks and keep them alive in order that they may feed on 
the mosquito larvae, thus keeping the houses free of mosquitoes. 

Where kerosene is considered objectionable, and where fish can not 
be readily obtained, there is another course left open. It is the con- 
stant artificial agitation of the water, since mosquitoes will oviposit 
only in still water. At San Diego, Tex., in the summer there are no 
streams for many miles, but plenty of mosquitoes breed in the water 
tanks. Some enterprising individuals keep their tanks free by putting 
in a little wheel, which is turned by the windmill, and keeps the water 
almost constantly agitated. 

THE MOSQUITOES OF THE COUNTRY AT LARGE. 

In the introductory paragraph the writer has indicated that we have 
numerous species among the mosquitoes of the United States and that 
several different species may occur in the same locality. It happens, 
however, that no definite knowledge exists, even among entomologists 
as to the exact species which may be found in any given locality. The 
desirability of a careful study of our mosquitoes is therefore apparent. 
As a preliminary step, the writer borrowed all of the mosquitoes from 
the collections of Prof. Lawrence Brunei*, of the University of Nebraska, 
Lincoln, Nebr. ; Prof. J. H. Comstock, of Cornell University, Ithaca, 
X. Y.; Prof. H. Garman, of the agricultural experiment station at 
Lexington, Ky.; Prof. C. P. Gillette, agricultural experiment station, 
Fort Collins, Colo.; Prof. C. W. Johnson, Wagner Free Institute, Phil- 
adelphia, Pa.; Prof. Otto Lugger, agricultural experiment station, 
St. Anthony Park, Minn.; Dr. W. A. Nason, Algonquin, 111., and Mr. 
Th. Pergande, Washington, D. C. The material thus received, together 
with the collection of Culicida? of the department of insects in the 
National Museum, was placed in the hands of Mr. D. W. Coquillett for 
specific study. 

The results of this study were interesting. Mr. Coquillett had under 
his hands mosquitoes from nearly all portions of the United States. 
He found that the material represented twenty different species, of five 
genera, and was able to make out some important synonymical facts. 
In the distribution of certain species the results were unexpected. It 
was found that some of the commoner forms, viz, Culex consobrinus, 
C. excitans, C. pertiirbans, C. posticatus, C. pungens, Prosophora ciliata, 



22 PRINCIPAL HOUSEHOLD INSECTS. 

Anopheles piinctipennis, and A. quadrimaeiilata, occur all over the 
country, from New England to Texas, and even to southern California. 
In almost any given locality in the United States, therefore, one would 
probably be able to find all of these eight species, with perhaps two or 
three additional ones. 

The list which follows was drawn up by Mr. Coquillett, and embodies, 
in part, the results of his studies. It must be remembered that, after 
all, the material was scanty, since no one has taken the trouble to 
thoroughly collect mosquitoes. The list represents, however, a distinct 
and important advance on our former knowledge of these annoying 
creatures. 

LIST OF THE MOSQUITOES OF THE UNITED STATES. 

(A) Species examined by D. TT. Coquillett. 

Culex consobrinus Desv. 3 males, 18 females. 

Synonyms: Culex punct or Kirby ; C. impatiens Walk. ; C. pinguis Walk. ; C. inor- 
natus Will, (the latter synonymy based on a study of one of Williston's co- 
type specimens). 
Habitat: White Mountains, N. H. ; Beverlj', Mass., September 28 (Nat. Mas.); 
Catskill Mountains, Greene County, N. Y., 2,500 feet (Howard) ; Illinois, March 
21, April 29, May 6, October 16 (Nason); St. Anthony Park, Minn... April, May, 
on snow (Lugger) ; Saskatchewan River. British America; South Dakota (Nat. 
Mus.); Lincoln, Nebr., May, September (Bruner); Colorado (Nat. Mus.); Los 
Angeles, Cal., February (Coquillett) ; Argus Mountains, Cal., April (Nat. Mus.) ; 
Santa Fe, N. Mex., July (Cockerell). 
Culex excitans Walk. 3 males, 2 females. 

Habitat: New Bedford, Mass. (Johnson); Lincoln, Nebr., May (Bruner); Santa 
Fe", N. Mex., July (Cockerell). 
Culex excrucians Walk. 3 females. 

Habitat: Ithaca, N. Y., July 14 (Comstock). 
Culex fasciatus Fabr. 4 males, 2 females. 

Synonyms: Culex tceniatus Wied. ; Culex mosquito Desv. (non Arribalzaga). 
Habitat: Georgia, August (Coquillett) ; Natchitoches, La., October 6 (Johnson); 
Isle of Pines, W. I. (Scudder); Kingston, Jamaica, July 13 (Johnson). 
Culex impiger Walk. 14 males, 50 females. 
Synonym : Culex implacabilis Walk. 

Habitat: White Mountains, N. H. ; Beverly, Mass., May 24, June 2 (Nat. Mus.) ; 
Ithaca, N. Y., July 9 and 17, August 28; Wilmuth, N. Y., June 10 (Comstock); 
Saskatchewan River, British America (Nat. Mus.); Minnesota (Lugger); 
Loudon County, Va., Aug. 26 (Pratt) ; Tyrone, Ky., July 14 (Garman) ; Georgia 
(Nat. Mus.) ; Mesilla, N. Mex., (Cockerell) ; Isle of Pines, W. I. (Scudder) ; Port- 
land, Jamaica (Johnson). 
Culex perturbans Walk. 8 females. 

Habitat: Lakeland, Md., August 8 (Pratt); Virginia, August 17 (Pergaude); 
Tick Island, Fla., May 12 (Johnson) ; Texas (Nat. Mus.). 
Culex posticatus Wied. 5 females. 
Synonym: Culex musicus Say. 

Habitat: Montgomery County, Pa., July 17 (Johnson); Texas (Nat. Mus.). 
Culex pungens Wied. 25 males, 103 females. 

Habitat: White Mountains, N. H. ; Beverly, Mass., September 5; Cambridge, 
Mass., September 16 to November 5; Boston, Mass.; Baltimore, Md., Novem- 
ber 5 (Nat. Mus.), November 26 (Lugger) ; Charlton Heights, Md., December 1 



MOSQUITOES AND FLEAS. 23 

(Pratt) ; District of Columbia, January 30, March 5, May 6 and 15, June 28, July 
11, August, October 10, 15. 25, and 31, November 4, 8, 13, 16, and 23, December 
23 (Pergande); Ithaca, N. Y., May 29, July 17. August 28 (Comstock); Illinois 
(Nason): Minnesota (Lugger); Lincoln, Nebr., September 20 (Bruner); Lex- 
ington, Ky., November 10 (Garman) ; New Orleans, La.. December 17 (Howard) ; 
San Antonio, Tex., May 5 (Marlatt); Georgia, August (Coquillett) ; Portland. 
Jamaica (Johnson). 
Culex signifer Coq. 1 female. 

Habitat: District of Columbia, June (Coquillett). 
Culex stiniulans Walk. 13 males, 54 females. 

Habitat: White Mountains, N. H. ; Beverly, Mass.. June 2, July 9; Cambridge, 
Mass.. May; Jamaica Plain, Mass., August 25 (Nat. Mus.); Baltimore, Md. 
(Lugger): Illinois. August 1, September 15, October 5 (Nason): Agricultural 
College, Mich. (Gillette): Saskatchewan Biver, British America (Nat. Mus.); 
Lincoln, Nebr. (Bruner); Colorado (Nat. Mus.); Ithaca, N. Y., June 13, 18, 29, 
July 14, August 28; Wilmuth, N. Y., June 10 (Comstock) ; Georgia (Nat. Mus. ). 
Culex tarsalis Coq. 1 male, 4 females. 

Habitat: Argus Mountains, Cal., April; Folsom, Cal., July 3 (Nat. Mus.). 
Culex triseriata Say. 3 females. 

Habitat: White Mountains, N. H. (Nat. Mus.); Delaware County, Pa., June 12 
(Johnson) ; Washington, D. C, May 5, Loudon County, Va. (Pratt). 
Culex tseniorhynchus Wied. 1 male, 32 females. 
(Not the Culex tceniorhynchus Wied. of Arribalzaga.) 

Habitat: Maine, August; Beverly, Mass., June, September 15 (Nat. Mus.); 
Avalon, Anglesea, and Atlantic City, N. J., July 10 to 29 (Johnson) ; Far 
Eockaway, Long Island, N. Y., Aug. 30 (Howard) ; District of Columbia 
(Pergande); Georgia (Nat. Mus.); St. Augustine and Charlotte Harbor, Fla.. 
July; Portland, Jamaica (Johnson). 
Psorophora ciliata Fabr. 2 males, 29 females. 

Habitat: Dorchester, Mass. (Nat. Mus.); Washington, D. C. (Chittenden); 

Westville. N. J., July 2 (Johnson); Illinois (Nason); Brooklyn Bridge, Ky., 

June 23 (Garman); Lincoln, Nebr., July, August (Bruner): Los Angeles, Cal. 

(Coquillett); San Diego, Tex., May 15 (Schwarz); Florida, July vNat. Mus.). 

Anopheles crucians Wied. 3 females. 

Habitat: District of Columbia, April 27 (Pergande) ; Georgia (Nat. Mus.). 
Anopheles punctipennis Say. 5 males, 13 females. 

(.Considered by Wiedemann to be the same species as his Anopheles crucian*, but 
the two are certainly distinct.) 

Synonym: Culex liyemalis Fitch (wrongly referred to Anopheles quadrimaculaia 
in the Osten Sacken Catalogue). 

Habitat: Castleton, Vt., February 1 (temperature 6 : F.); Beverly, Mass., Sep- 
tember 19, October 2; Cambridge, Mass., June 16, September 30, October 20 
(Nat. Mus.); Charlton Heights, Md., March 31. November 17 (Pratt) ; District 
of Columbia, June 6, October 15, 25, and 31 (Pergande); Philadelphia. Pa., 
October 12 (Johnson) ; Ithaca, N. Y., April 17, August 28 (Comstock) : Illinois, 
October 16 (Nason); Texas (Nat. Mus.): Mesilla, N. Mex. (Cockerell): Port- 
land, Jamaica (Johnson). 
Anopheles quadrimaculata Say. 3 males, 31 females. 

Habitat: Berlin Falls, N. H., August (Nat. Mus.); Ithaca, N. Y., January, July 
31, November 28 (Comstock); Lakeland, Md., August 8; Charlton Heights. 
Md., November 24 (Pratt) ; District of Columbia, July, October 15, November 
2 and 14 (Pergande) : Illinois, September 10, October 10 (Nason) ; St. Anthony 
Park, Minn., December 11 (Lugger); Tick Island, Fla., May 12 (Johnson); 
Texas (Nat. Mus.). 



24 PRINCIPAL HOUSEHOLD INSECTS. 

Megarhinus ferox Wied. 1 male. 

Habitat: District of Columbia, August 22 (Pergande). 
Megarhinus rutilus Coq. 3 males, 5 females. 

Habitat: North Carolina; Georgiana, Fla. (Nat. Mus.). 
Aedes sapphirinus 0. S. 1 female. 

Habitat: Ithaca, N. Y. (Comstock). 

(B) Species recorded from the United States, but not included in the material studied. 

Culex rubid us Desvoidy, Culicides, etc. Carolina. 

Culex testaceus v. d. Wulp, Tijdschr. v. Entom., 2d ser., II, 128, Tab. Ill, f. 1. Wis- 
consin. 

Culex incidens Thomson, Eugenie's Resa, etc., 443. California. 

Culex territans Walker, Dipt. Saund., 428, United States. 

Psorophora boscii Desvoidy, Culicides, etc. Carolina. 

Anopheles annulimanus v. d. Wulp, Tijdschr. v. Entom., 2d ser., II, 129, Tab. Ill, f. 2. 
Wisconsin. 

Anopheles ferruginosus Wiedemann, Auss. Zw., I, 12. New Orleans (Wied.); on the 
Mississippi (Say). 
Culex quinquefasciatus Say, Journ. Ac. Phil., Ill, 10, 2; Compl. Wr., II, 39. 
(Change of name by Wied.) 

Anopheles maculipennis Meigen (European species, which also occurs in North America, 
according to Loew, Sillini. Journ., n. ser., Vol. XXXVII, 317). 

Anopheles nigripes Staeger (European species, which also occurs in North America, 
according to Loew, Sillim. Journ., n. ser., Vol. XXXVII, 317). 

Aedes fuscus O. Sacken, Western Diptera, 191. Cambridge, Mass. 



THE CAT AND DOG FLEA.. 

(Pulex serraticeps Gerv.) 

Examination of many specimens of fleas sent to the Department in 
recent years shows that the species which commonly overruns houses 
during the damp summers, in our Eastern cities at least, is not, as many- 
have supposed, the human flea (Pulex irritans), but the common cos- 
mopolitan flea of the dog and the cat (Pulex serraticeps). There is wide- 
spread ignorance as to the transformations of this insect, and even the 
average entomologist is puzzled to know where to consult good figures 
of the different stages and a detailed account of the life history. The 
figures accompanying this article have been prepared to fill this want, 
and the following account of the transformations has been drawn up 
from notes made during the summer of 1895, at the request of the 
writer, by Mr. Pergande, of the division of entomology. The best two 
of the previously published articles are, one by Laboulbene, in the 
Annales de la Societe Entomologique de France, 1872, pp. 267-273, PL 
XIII, and the other by W. J. Simmons, read before the Microscopical 
Society of Calcutta, March 5, 1888, and printed in The American 
Monthly Microscopical Journal for December, 1888, with no illustra- 
tions. 1 



'Ritzema has written an article on the natural history of the dog ilea, which, 
however, could not be consulted by the writer. 



MOSQUITOES AND FLEAS. 



25 



Laboulbene describes carefully the pretty, oval, waxy white or 
opaque, porcelain-colored, smooth egg, which reaches 0.5 mm. in 
length. He describes the external appearance of the larvae and recites 
their extremely rapid movements, which are made by means of the 
bristles with which they are furnished, and particularly by means of 
the tubercle and the hair-like spines below the head. He placed larvae 
upon dust, with birds' feathers mixed with dried blood, upon which 
they developed perfectly. Others were put on the sweepings of a room, 
and developed just as well. Laboulbene at first believed that blood 
was necessary for the nourishment of the larva?, the reddish-colored 
contents of the digestive tract making him think so; but he found they 
would flourish and complete their metamorphoses in sweepings in which 
there was no trace of blood. He concluded that all that has been said 
on Puletv irritans nourishing its young on dried blood is very problem- 




Fig. 5. — Pulex serraticeps ; a, egg; b, larva in cocoon ; c, pupa; d, adult; c, mouth-parts of same from 
side.- /, labium of same from below: g, antenna_of same — all enlarged (original). 

atical. In his opinion the larvae of the cat flea for the most part live 
upon the ground in spots where cats stay, and that they live in the 
dust in the cracks of the floor. The cocoon he described as ovoid, 
almost rounded, brown and granular, because it is covered with dust, 
delicate, bat difficult to open, attached by one surface. It is about 
2.5 mm. by 2.75 mm. The only statement in the article regarding the 
length of the different stages is to the effect that the pupal condition 
lasts from one to two weeks. 

Mr. Simmons found the eggs upon a cloth upon which a dog had 
been sleeping, in the midst of a dust composed of fragments of cuticle, 
hairs, fibers, and pellets of dried blood, the last being probably the nat- 
ural excreta of- the fleas. In fifty hours most of the eggs hatched. The 
larva? are described, and the statement is made that in seven days they 
began to spin their cocoons. They remained in the cocoons eight days, 



26 PRINCIPAL HOUSEHOLD INSECTS. 

when the adults emerged, completing their transformations seventeen 
days after the eggs were deposited. 

The eggs of the flea under consideration are deposited between the 
hairs of the infested animals, but are not fastened to them, so that when 
the animal moves about or lies down numbers of the eggs will be dis- 
lodged and drop to the ground or the floor or wherever the animal may 
be at the time. An easy way to collect them, therefore, is to lay a strip 
of cloth for the animal to sleep upon, and afterwards brush the cloth 
into a receptacle, in which the eggs will be found in numbers. Some 
difficulty was found in securing proper conditions of moisture to bring 
about successful rearing, and some detailed account of our experience 
will be of value to persons who desire to repeat the rearing in order to 
secure material for microscopic study, and will be at the same time 
suggestive as bearing on the conditions under which the insect will 
multiply in houses. 

On June 27 a number of eggs were collected and placed in two glass 
vessels, one large and one small, each containing a layer of sand at the 
bottom, next a layer of sawdust, and on top of this a layer of rich soil. 
The eggs were placed between two layers of blotting paper on top of 
the soil. On June 29 fourteen of the eggs had hatched in the small 
vessel, and the larvae had crawled at once down into the sawdust. 

On July 1 some of the eggs were found to have hatched in the large 
vessel, and the alimentary canal of the larva? was already brownish, 
indicating that they had been feeding to some extent and presumably 
upon the particles of dried blood collected with the eggs and placed 
with them between the layers of blotting paper. By July 11 all of these 
larvae in both vessels had died, apparently without having cast a skin. 
They were very active during most of this period, crawling rapidly 
about when disturbed. Some were noticed to feed upon particles of 
peat which was placed with them. From some of these individuals 
fig. 6 was made. On the second antennal joint there was apparent a 
sensorial spot, and on or near the base of the antenna} were two small, 
slender, fleshy tubercles and a few granulations on each side, some dis- 
tance behind the antenme. At the base of the head above occurred a 
small, apparently well differentiated sclerite, as indicated in fig. 6, ft, the 
purpose of which we can not surmise. Immediately behind it, on the 
anterior border of the first thoracic segment, is apparently a delicate 
sculpturing, indicating a thickening of the integument at this point. 
The posterior border of this segment is a somewhat similar, faintly 
indicated band. The first nine segments bear each four dorsal bristles 
and, on each side, one ventro lateral bristle, near the posterior margin. 
The two following segments bear each six dorsal bristles and one ventro- 
lateral bristle, and the penultimate segment eight dorsal and one ven- 
tral bristle. These bristles become gradually longer toward the end of 
the body. The last segment is without long bristles, although there is 
a semicircular transverse row of numerous fine hairs and a small patch 



MOSQUITOES AND FLEAS. 



27 



of still finer hairs ou each of the anal lobes near the base of the anal 
prolegs, as shown in fig. 6, c. 

On July 6 another lot of eggs was placed in each of the two different 
vessels. One lot was kept moist and the other dry, and both lots were 
provided with nothing but the particles of dried blood and a few 
crumbs of dry bread. On July 8 it was discovered that all of the eggs 
had hatched. Both vessels had been kept closed under a glass cover. 
Those between the layers of damp blotting paper had apparently not 
fed. Some were dead, having crawled up the sides of the vessel. 
Those in the dry receptable were very lively and had fed abundantly, 
so that* the whole alimentary canal, from one end to the other, was 
dark brown. 




Fig. 6. — Pulex serraticeps: a, larva; b, head; c, anal end of same— greatly enlarged (original). 



On July 9 the larvae in the dry receptacle had cast the first skin, 
but upon careful examination were seen to agree perfectly with those 
of the first stage, except that they were larger. No trace of eyes could 
be found in either stage. The mandibles apparently bore four blunt 
teeth. At this date the larvae kept in the moist receptacle had not 
cast a skin, and appeared almost colorless, having fed very little. In 
both vessels, however, all the larvae were very active and ran about 
very briskly. Their movements when crawling recall those of many 
Tineid larvae. Ten individuals of the second stage were removed to 
another vessel to see whether they would cast a second skin. 

On July 10 all of the larvae in the original moist vessel died. Those 
in the dry vessel, which had been fed with bread crumbs, were still 
growing nicely, and were very active. By July 15 all the larvae which 
had been transferred, to watch for further molts, had died without 



28 PRINCIPAL HOUSEHOLD INSECTS. 

molting. They either stuck to the crumbs, which were rather greasy, 
or to the sides of the glass, which had also become somewhat greasy. 
On the same date the larva? in the dry vessel, from which these ten 
had been removed, commenced to spin up. Many were restlessly run- 
ning about in search of suitable places for spinning, and some had even 
reached the top of the blotting paper. A thin layer of gray cotton 
was placed between the two blotting papers to give them suitable 
spinning places. The eggs hatched in two days, having been kept dry 
all the time. The first skin was cast two days after hatching, and the 
beginning of spinning occurred eight days after hatching. 

By July 19 no more specimens had spun up and many had died. The 
receptacle seemed to be too dry and too hot, and the blotting paper was 
somewhat moistened. But one pupa was found, which was that of a 
larva which began to spin July 15. July 21 no others had spun up, 
although they were still very lively. The pupa had become brownish. 
July 22 the adult flea issued over night and escaped through the cov- 
ering. From that time until July 29 no more spun cocoons, and many 
of them died. On July 30 one of the survivors commenced to spin, 
twenty-four days after hatching. The cocoon is delicate, white in 
color, and is very well shown at fig. 5. 

On August 2 this larva, which commenced to spin July 21, changed 
to pupa. On August 6 it was still white in color, becoming somewhat 
yellowish on the 7th and quite brown on the 8th. On the 9th the adult 
flea was found to have issued overnight. The pupa state, therefore, 
lasted about eight days, and it is to be noted that the pupa remains 
white until shortly before the emergence of the adult. It was supposed 
that the pupa stage in this instance was longer than usual, on account 
of the fact that the larval stage was so very much longer than in the 
first instance. 

On July 11 another series of experiments was started, in order to 
gauge the variation in the duration of the stages and settle the ques- 
tion of the number of larval molts. Eggs collected on this date 
hatched July 13. On July 16, of fifteen larva? eleven had cast the first 
skin. On July 18 five specimens cast the second skin. July 19 the 
weather was extremely warm and a number of the larva? died. July 20 
the heat continued, and more died. On July 23 seven larva? which had 
cast the first skin remained; one of them had begun to spin up. There 
were on the morning of this date three cast skins in the receptacle, so 
that there are apparently three molts. In this final state the bristles 
have become longer and the mandibles have two teeth at the apex. 
The remaining four were carried on until August 8, when the last one 
died, none of them having succeeded in casting a third skin. Of the 
entire lot, but one was reared to the pupa state, and this pupa was 
preserved in alcohol for drawing. The record of this advanced speci 
men shows three molts, and that it began to spin eight days after 
hatching. The average of the others shows that the eggs hatch in 



MOSQUITOES AND FLEAS. 29 

from two to four days and that some of the larvae cast their first skin 
three to four days later, and a second skin two to six days later. 

On July 15 another series was begun. The eggs collected on this 
date began to hatch on the 17th and all had hatched by the morning 
of the 18th. July 21 some of them had cast the first skin. 

August 1 the first one spun up; August 3, two more; August 6, two 
more. At this date the first one which constructed its cocoon turned 
brown. August 7 one full-grown larva transformed to pupa without 
spinning a cocoon. August 12 the first adult emerged. A summary 
for this lot shows that the eggs hatch in from two to four days and 
that the larvae cast the first skin from five to seven days later. Some 
spun up sixteen to twenty days after hatching, and the imago appeared 
six days later. 

Observation of these last two lots shows that the larvae are very apt 
to die if kept too dry or too moist. They also need plenty of air. 

July 20 another series was begun. Eggs collected on this date 
hatched the following day. July 24 the first skin was cast; July 26, in 
one case a second skin was cast. July 27 three more cast a second 
skin, and on this date one individual spun its cocoon. July 29 three 
more began to spin ; on July 30 many more. On July 30 the first one 
that began to spin was found to have changed to pupa. August 2 
many cocoons were found. Some of the larvae, disturbed while spin- 
ning, left the incomplete cocoon and transformed to pupa outside of it. 
Most of the advanced specimens were placed in alcohol, and it was not 
until August 14 that an adult was allowed to emerge. 

This series of observations showed that the eggs hatched about one 
day after being placed in the vessels. The larvae cast their first skin 
in from three to seven days, and their second skin in from three to four 
days. They commenced spinning in from seven to fourteen days after 
hatching, and the imago appeared five days later. 

From these observations it appears that in summer at Washington 
many specimens will undergo their transformations quite as rapidly as 
Mr. Simmons found to be the case at Calcutta, and that an entire gen- 
eration may develop in little more than a fortnight; also that an excess 
of moisture is prejudicial to the successful development of the insect 
and that in the same way the breeding place must not be too dry. The 
little particles of blood found among the eggs on the cloth upon 
which the infested animal has slept are probably the excrement of the 
adult fleas. This substance in itself, together with what vegetable 
dust is found in the places where these larvae rear themselves, suffices 
for the larval food. 

REMEDIES. 

Flea larvae will not develop successfully in situations where they are 
likely to be disturbed. That they will develop in the dust in the cracks 
in floors which are not frequently swept has been observed by the 
writer. The overrunning of houses in summer during the temporary 



30 PRINCIPAL HOUSEHOLD INSECTS. 

absence of the occupants is undoubtedly due to the development of 
a brood of ileas in the dust in the cracks of the floor from eggs which 
have been dropped by some pet dog or cat. This overrunning is 
more liable to occur in moist than in excessively dry summer weather, 
and it is more likely to occur during the absence of the occupants of 
the house, for the reason that the floors do not, under such circum- 
stances, receive their customary sweeping. The use of carpets or 
straw mattings, in our opinion, favors their development under the cir- 
cumstances above mentioned. The young larvae are so slender and so 
active that they readily penetrate the interstices of both sorts of cover- 
ings and find an abiding place in some crack where they are not likely 
to be disturbed. 

That it is not difficult to destroy this flea in its early stages is shown 
by the difficulty we have had in rearing it 5 but to destroy the adult fleas 
is another matter. Their extreme activity and great hardiness render 
any but the most strenuous measures unsuccessful. In such cases we 
have tried a number of the ordinarily recommended remedies in vain. 
Even the persistent use of California buhach and other pyrethrum 
powders, and, what seems still stranger, a free sprinkling of floor mat- 
ti ng with benzine, were ineffectual in one particular case of extreme 
infestation. In fact, it was not until all the floor mattings had been 
taken up and the floor washed down with hot soapsuds that the flea 
pest abated. In another case, however, the writer found that a single 
application of California buhach, freely applied, was perfectly success- 
ful; and in a third case a single thorough application of benzine also 
resulted in perfect success. The pyrethrum application was made in a 
Brooklyn (N. Y.) house, and the benzine application in a Washington 
residence. The frequently recommended newspaper remedy of placing 
a piece of raw meat in the center of a piece of sticky fly paper has been 
thoroughly tried by the writer, without the slightest success. As a 
palliative measure, however, the plan adopted by Professor Gage in 
the McGraw Building of Cornell University, and described at length 
on page 422 of Vol. VII, Insect Life, may be worth trying. It will be 
remembered that Professor Gage tied sheets of sticky fly paper, with 
the sticky side out, around the legs of the janitor of the building, who 
then for several hours walked up and down the floor of the infested 
room, with the result that all or nearly all of the fleas jumped on his 
ankles, as they will always do, and were caught by the fly paper. 

In his recent summary of the described fleas (Canadian Entomolo- 
gist, August, 1895, pp. 221-222) Mr. C. F. Baker shows that there are 
forty-seven valid species, which attack all sorts of warm-blooded 
animals. The species which we have just considered (Piilex serrati- 
ceps Gervais) is, as he states, the common cat and dog flea, well known 
over all parts of the world. Mr. Baker further states that, " besides 
the various wild cats and dogs, it has been reported from Herpestes 
ichneumon (Pharaoh's rat), Fcetorius putorius (common polecat of 



MOSQUITOES AND FLEAS. 31 

Europe), Hyaena striata (striped hyena), Lepus timidus (common hare), 
and Procyon lotor (raccoon). It is also said to occasionally sip human 
blood [sic!]. I have specimens from various parts of North America, 
and also from Europe." Many unfortunate inhabitants of New York, 
Philadelphia, Washington, and Baltimore during the past few summers 
will be able to verify Mr. Baker's statement that the species occasion- 
ally sips human blood! This species may be distinguished at a glance 
from the so called human flea (Pulex irritans) by the fact that the latter 
species does not possess the strong recurved spines on the margin of 
the head, which show so distinctly in fig. 5. 

ADDENDUM. 

The so-called permanganate of potash remedy against mosquitoes. — 
During 1898 a newspaper article, purporting to be copied from the 
Public Health Journal, was widely published throughout the country. 
It claimed that a handful of permanganate of potash will oxidize a 
10-acre swamp, kill its embryo insects, and keep it free from organic 
matter for thirty days, at a cost of 25 cents, and that the insect in all 
of its stages can be instantly killed by contact with minute quantities 
of the substance. 

The article showed great ignorance in the life history of the mosquito, 
but it gained such wide credence that experiments were undertaken by 
the writer. It was found that small quantities of the chemical had no 
effect whatever on the larvae, which were, however, killed by using 
amounts so large that, instead of using "a handful to a 10-acre swamp," 
at least a wagon load would have to be used to accomplish any result. 
Moreover, after the use of this large amount and after the iarvae were 
killed, the same water twenty-four hours later sustained freshly hatched 
mosquito larvae perfectly, so that even were a person to go to the pro- 
hibitive expense of killing mosquito larvae in a swamp with perman- 
ganate of potash, the same task would have to be done over again two 
days later. 



CHAPTER II. 
THE BEDBUG AND CONE-NOSE. 

By C. L. Maklatt. 
THE BEDBUG. 

(Cimex lectularius Linn.) 

This disgusting human parasite, the very discussion of which is 
tabooed in polite society, is practically limited to houses of the meaner 
sort, or where the owners are indifferent or careless, or to hostelries 
not always of the cheaper kind. The careful housekeeper would feel it 
a signal disgrace to have her chambers invaded by this insect, and, in 
point of fact, where ordinary care and vigilance are maintained the 
danger in this direction is very slight. The presence of this insect, 
however, is not necessarily an indication of neglect or carelessness, for,' 




Fig. 7.— Cimex lectularitis : a, adult female, gorged with blood; b, same, from below; c, rudimentary 
wing-pad; d, mouth-parts— all enlarged (original). 

little as the idea may be relished, it may often gain access in spite of 
the best of care and the adoption of all reasonable precautions. It is 
very apt to get into the trunks and satchels of travelers, aud may thus 
be introduced into homes. Unfortunately, also, it is quite capable of 
migrating from one house to another, and will often continue to come 
from an adjoining house, sometimes for a period of several months, 
gaining entrance daily. Such migration is especially apt to take place 
if the human inhabitants of an infested house leave it. With the 
32 



THE BEDBUG AND CONE-NOSE. 



33 



failure of their usual source of food, the migratory iustinct is devel- 
oped, aud escaping' through windows, they pass along walls, water pipes, 
or gutters, and thus gain entrance into adjoining houses. It is expe- 
dient, therefore, to consider this insect, unsavory as the subject may 
be, since, as shown, it may be anyone's misfortune to have his premises 
temporarily invaded. 

As with nearly all the insects associated with man, the bedbug has 
had the habits now characteristic of it as far back as the records run. 
It was undoubtedly of common occurrence in the dwellings of the 
ancient peoples of Asia. The Romans were well acquainted with it, giv- 
ing it the name Cimex. It was supposed by Pliny (and this was doubt- 
less the common belief among the Romans) to have medicinal properties, 
and it was recommended, among other things, as a specific for the bites 
of serpents. It is said to have been first introduced into England in 
1503, but the references to it are of such a nature as to make it very 
probable that it had been there long previously. Two hundred and fifty 




Fig. 8. — Cimex leetularius. Egg and newly hatched larva of bedbug: a, larva from below; b, larva 
from above; c, claw; d, ego-; e, hair or spine of larva — greatly enlarged; natural size of larva and 
egg indicated by hair lines (original) . 

years later it was reported to be very abundant in the seaport towns, 
but was scarcely known inland. It has been inferred that the following 
reference from the old English Bible of 1551 is to this insect: "Thou 
shalt not nede to be afriad for eny Bugges by night" (Psalm XCI, 5). 

One of the old English names was " wall-louse." It was afterwards 
very well known as the " chinch," which continued to be the common 
appellation for it until within a century or two, and is still used in parts 
of this country. The origin of the name "bedbug" is not known, but 
it is such a descriptive one that it would seem to have been very natu- 
rally suggested. Almost everywhere there are local names for this 
parasite, as, for illustration, around Boston they are called "chintzes" 
and "chinches," and from Baltimore comes the name "mahogany flat," 
while in New York they are styled "red coats." 

The bedbug has accompanied man wherever he has gone. Vessels 
are almost sure to be infested with it. It is not especially limited by 
cold, and is known to occur well north. It probably came to this 
21470— No. 4 3 



34 PRINCIPAL HOUSEHOLD INSECTS. 

country with the earliest colonists, at least Kalin, writing in 1748-49, 
stated that it was plentiful in the English colonies and in Canada, 
though unknown among the Indians. 

The bedbug belongs to the order Hemiptera, which includes the true 
bugs or piercing insects, characterized by possessing a piercing and 
sucking beak. The bedbug is to man what the chinch bug is to grains 
or the squash bug to cucurbs. Like nearly all the insects parasitic on 
animals, however, it is degraded structurally, its parasitic nature and 
the slight necessity for extensive locomotion having resulted, after 
many ages doubtless, in the loss of wings and the assumption of a 
comparatively simple structure. The wings are represented by the 
merest rudiments, barely recognizable pads, and it lacks the simple 
eyes or ocelli of most other true bugs. In form it is much flattened, 
obovate, and in color is rust red, with the abdomen more or less tinged 
with black. The absence of wings is a most fortunate circumstance, 
since otherwise tin re would be no safety from it even for the most 
careful and thorough of housekeepers. Some slight variation in length 
of wing pads has been observed, but none with wings showing any 
considerable development have ever been found. 

A closely allied species is a parasitic messmate in the nests of the 
common barn or eaves swallow in this country, and it often happens that 
the nests of these birds are fairly alive with these vermin. The latter 
not infrequently gain access to houses, and cause the housekeeper con- 
siderable momentary alarm. At least three species occur also in Eng- 
land, all very closely resembling the bedbug. One of these is found in 
pigeon cotes, another in the nests of the English martin, and a third in 
places frequented by bats. What seems to be the true bedbug, or at 
least a mere variety, also occurs occasionally in poultry houses. 1 

The most characteristic feature of the insect is the very distinct and 
disagreeable odor which it exhales, an odor well known to all who have 
been familiar with it as the "buggy" odor. This odor is by no means 
limited to the bedbug, but is characteristic of most plant bugs also. 
The common chinch bug affecting small grains and the squash bugs all 
possess this odor, and it is quite as pungent with these plant feeding 
forms as with the human parasite. The possession of this odor, dis- 
agreeable as it is, is, after all, a most fortunate circumstance, as it is of 
considerable assistance in detecting the presence of these vermin. The 
odor comes from glands, situated in various parts of the body, which 
secrete a clear, oily, volatile liquid. The possession of this odor is cer- 
tainly, with the plant-feeding forms, a means of protection against 
insectivorous birds, rendering these insects obnoxious or distasteful to 
their feathered enemies. With the bedbug it is probably an illustration 
of a very common phenomenon among animals, the persistence of a 
characteristic which is no longer of any especial value to the possessor 
of it. The natural enemies of true bugs, against which this odor serves 

1 Insect Life, Vol. VI, p. 166, Osborn. 



THE BEDBUG AND CONJE-NOSE. 



35 



as a means of protection, in the conditions nnder which the bedbug 
lives, are kept away from it, and the roach, which will be shown later 
to feed on bedbugs, is evidently not deterred by the odor, while, the com- 
mon house ant, which will also attack the bedbug, seems not to find this 
odor disagreeable. 

The bedbug is thoroughly nocturnal in habit and displays a certain 
degree of wariness and caution, or intelligence, in its efforts at con- 
cealment during the day. It thrives particularly in filthy apartments 
and in old houses which are full of cracks and crevices in which it can 
conceal itself beyond easy reach. It usually leaves the bed at the 
approach of daylight to go into concealment either in cracks in the 
bedstead, if it be one of the old wooden variety, or behind wainscoting, 
or under loose wall paper, where it manifests its gregarious habit by col- 
lecting in masses together. The old-fashioned heavy wooden bedsteads 
are especially favorable for the concealment and multiplication of this 




Fig. 9.— Cimex lectularius: a, first larval skin shed at first moult; I , second larval stage taken imme- 
diately after emerging from a,- c, same after first meal, distended with blood (original). 

insect, and the general use in later years of iron and brass bedsteads 
has very greatly facilitated its eradication. They are not apt to be 
very active in winter, especially in cold rooms, and ordinarily hibernate 
in their places of concealment. 

The bedbug, though normally feeding on human blood, seems to be 
able to subsist for a time at least on much simpler food, and in fact the 
evidence is pretty conclusive that it is able to get more or less suste- 
nance from the juices of moistened wood, or the moisture in the accu- 
mulations of dust, etc., in crevices in flooring. No other explanation 
would seem to account for the fact that houses long unoccupied are 
found, on being reinhabitated, to be thoroughly stocked with bedbugs. 

There is a very prevalent belief among the old settlers in the West 
that this insect normally lives on dead or diseased cottonwood logs, 
and is almost certain to be abundant in log houses of this wood. This 
belief was recently voiced by Gapt. S. M. Swigert, IT. S A., who reports 
that it often occurs in numbers under the bark of dead trees of cotton- 



36 PRINCIPAL HOUSEHOLD INSECTS. 

wood (Populus monilifera), especially along the Big and Little Horn 
rivers in Montana. 

The origin of this misconception — for snch it is — so far as the out-of- 
door occurrence is concerned, is probably, as pointed out by Professor 
Riley, from a confusion of the bedbug with the immature stages of an 
entirely distinct insect (Aradus sp.) which somewhat resembles the 
former and often occurs under cottonwood bark. In houses, green or 
moist cottonwood logs or lumber may actually furnish sustenance in 
the absence of human food. The bedbug is, however, known to be 
able to survive for long periods without food, specimens having been 
kept for a year in a sealed vial, with absolutely no means of sustenance 
whatever, and in unoccupied houses it can undoubtedly undergo fasts 
of extreme length. Individuals obtained from eggs have been kept 
in small sealed vials in this office for several months, remaining active 
and sprightly in spite of the fact that they had never taken any nour- 
ishment whatever. 

Extraordinary stories are current of the remarkable intelligence of 
this insect in circumventing various efforts to prevent its gaining access 
to beds. Most of these are undoubtedly exaggerations, but the inher- 
ited experience of many centuries of companion ship with man, during 
which the bedbug has always found its host an active enemy, has 
resulted in a knowledge of the habits of the human animal and a facil- 
ity of concealment, particularly as evidenced by its abandoning beds 
and going often to distant quarters for protection and hiding during 
daylight, which indicate considerable apparent intelligence. 

The bite of the bedbug is decidedly poisonous to some individuals, 
resulting in a slight swelling and disagreeable inflammation. To such 
persons the presence of bedbugs is sufficient to cause the greatest 
uneasiness, if not to put sleep and rest entirely out of the question. 
With others, however, who are less sensitive, the presence of the bugs 
may not be recognized at all, and, except for the occasional staining of 
the linen by a crushed individual, their presence might be entirely 
overlooked. The inflammation experienced by sensitive persons seems 
to result merely from the puncture of the skin by the sharp piercing 
setae which constitute the puncturing element of the mouth parts, as 
there seems to be no secretion of poison other than the natural fluids 
of the mouth. 

The biting organ of the bedbug is exactly like that of other hemip- 
terous insects. It consists of a rather heavy, fleshy under lip (the only 
part ordinarily seen in examining the insect), within which lie four 
thread-like hard filaments or setae which glide over each other with 
an alternating motion and pierce the flesh. The blood is drawn up 
through the beak, which is closely applied to the point of puncture, 
and the alternating motion of these setae in the flesh causes the blood 
to flow more freely. The details of the structure of the beak are shown 
in the accompanying sketch (fig. 7, d). In common with other insects 



THE BEDBUG AND CONE-NOSE. 37 

which attack men, it is entirely possible for these pests to be transmit- 
ters of contagious diseases. 

Like its allies, the bedbug undergoes an incomplete metamorphosis, 
the young being very similar to their parents in appearance, structure, 
and in habit. The eggs are white oval objects, having a little project- 
ing rim around one edge, and are laid in batches of from one-half dozen 
to fifty in cracks and crevices where the bugs go for concealment. The 
eggs hatch in a week or ten days, and the young escape by pushing 
the lid within the projec ting rim from the shell. At first they are yel- 
lowish white, nearly transparent, the brown color of the more mature 
insect increasing with the later molts. During the course of develop- 
ment the skin is shed five times, and with the ]ast molt the minute 
wing pads characteristic of the adult insect make their appearance. 
A period of about eleven weeks has been supposed to be necessary 
for the complete maturity of this insect, but we have found this period 
subject to great variation, depending on warmth and food supply. 
Breeding experiments conducted at this office indicate, under most 
favorable conditions, a period averaging eight days between moltings 
and between the laying of the eggs and their hatching, giving about 
seven weeks as the period from egg to adult insect. Some individuals 
under the same conditions will, however, remain two to three weeks 
between moltings, and without food as already shown they may 
remain unchanged for an indefinite time. Ordinarily but one meal is 
taken between molts, so that each bedbug must puncture its host 
five times before becoming mature and at least once afterwards before 
it again develops eggs. They are said to lay several batches of eggs 
during the season, and are extremely prolific, as occasionally realized 
by the housekeeper, to her chagrin and embarrassment. 

REMEDIES. 

The bedbug, on account of its habits of concealment, is usually 
beyond the reach of powders, and the ordinary insect powders, such 
as pyrethrum, are of practically no avail against it. If iron or brass 
bedsteads are used the eradication of the insect is comparatively easy. 
With large wooden bedsteads, furnishing many cracks and crevices 
into which the bugs can force their flat, thin bodies, their extermina- 
tion becomes a matter of considerable difficulty. The most practical 
way to effect this end is by very liberal applications of benzine or 
kerosene or any other of the petroleum oils. These must be introduced 
into all crevices with small brushes or feathers, or by injecting with 
small syringes. Corrosive sublimate is also of value, and oil of tur- 
pentine may be used in the same way. The liberal use of hot water 
wherever it may be employed without danger to furniture, etc., is also 
an effectual method of destroying both eggs and active bugs. Various 
bedbug remedies and mixtures are for sale, most of them containing 
one or the other of the ingredients mentioned, and they are frequently 



38 PRINCIPAL HOUSEHOLD INSECTS. 

of value. The great desideratum, however, in a case of this kind, is a 
daily inspection of beds and bedding and of all crevices and locations 
about the premises where these vermin may have gone for conceal- 
ment. A vigorous campaign should, in the course of a week or so at 
the outside, result in the extermination of this very obnoxious and 
embarrassing pest. In the case of rooms containing books or where 
liquid applications are inadvisable, a thorough fumigation with brim- 
stone is, on the authority of Dr. J. A. Lintner, New York State ento- 
mologist, an effective means of destruction. He says: 

Place in the center of the room a dish containing about 4 ounces of brimstone, 
within a larger vessel, so that the possible overflowing of the burning mass may not 
injure the carpet or set fire to the floor. After removing from the room all such 
metallic surfaces as might be affected by the fumes, close every aperture, even the 
keyholes, and set fire to the brimstone. When four or five hours have elapsed, the 
room may be entered and the windows opened for a thorough airing. 

The fact that the bedbug has a very effective enemy in the common 
house cockroach has already been alluded to, and is particularly 
described in the chapter on the cockroach. Another common insect 
visitor in houses, and a very annoying one also to the careful house- 
keeper, the little red ant (Monomorium pharaonis), is also known to be 
a very active and effective "enemy of the bedbug. Mr. Theo. Pergaude, 
of this office, informs me that during the late war, when he was 
with the Union army, he occupied at one time barracks at Meridian. 
Miss., which had been abandoned by the Southern troops some 
time before. The premises proved to be swarming with bedbugs; 
but very shortly afterwards the little red house ant discovered the 
presence of the bedbugs and came in in enormous numbers, and Mr. 
Pergaude witnessed the very interesting and pleasing sight of the bed- 
bugs being dismembered or carried away bodily by these very minute 
ants, many times smaller than the bugs which they were handling so 
successfully. The result was that in a single day the bedbug nuisance 
was completely abated. The liking of red ants for bedbugs is con- 
firmed also by a correspondent writing from Florida (F. C. M. Boggess), 
who goes so far as to heartily recommend the artificial introduction of 
the ants to abate this bug nuisance. (Insect Life, Vol. YI, p. 340.) 
Bedbugs and other household insects, however, are not of the sort 
which it is convenient or profitable to tarn over to their natural ene- 
mies in the hope that eradication by this means will follow, and the 
fact of their being preyed upon by other insects furnishes no excuse to 
the housekeeper for not instituting prompt remedial measures. 

THE BLOOD-SUCKING CONE-NOSE. 

(Conorhinus sanguisuga Lee.) 

Somewhat allied to the bedbug in habit is another true bug, Cono- 
rhinus sanguisuga, bearing the very descriptive and appropriate popu- 
lar name of the " blood- sucking" cone-nose," or sometimes called the 



THE BEDBUG AND CONE-NOSE. 



39 



Texas or Mexican bedbug, or simply the big bedbug. Until recently it 
has been a rare visitant in houses, and is still practically unknown in 
Eastern cities, but in country places, particularly in the Mississippi 
Valley, is now often found in bedrooms, and its bite is very severe and 
painful, resulting in much more pronounced swelling and inflammation 
than in the case of the bedbug. 

The cone-nose belongs to the group of true bugs which includes 
predaceous species, or those which normally feed ou other insects 
rather than on plant juices. The members of the genus Conorhinus 
are mostly South American, and, on the authority of Burmeister, 
have the habit in the adult state of living, in part at least, on the 
blood of mammals. 
Tbe normal food of 
our species is, how- 
ever, unquestionably 
other insects, and its 
liking for human 
blood is evidently a 
habit of recent ac- 
quisition and limited 
to the full-grown in- 
sect, and probably 
only a small percent- 
age of these ever 
taste blood. Miss 
Bertha Kimball 
(Trans. Kans. Acad. 
Sci., Vol. XXIV, p. 
128, 1896) reports 
that they are often 
found in poultry 
houses, and that 
when abundant they 
attack horses in 
barns, and probably 
other domestic animals. In houses it has been found with bedbugs, and 
will unquestionably feed upon them, especially if it can secure speci- 
mens already charged with human blood, and it has been actually 
observed eating what was taken to be a young roach. In captivity Miss 
Kimball has succeeded in feeding both young and adults on house flies. 
That the blood-taking habit may be easily acquired is shown by the fact 
that many common plant bugs, if captured, will pierce the flesh, and 
several of the species which are attracted to light at night and settle 
on one's hand will pierce the skin and fill themselves with blood. 

The accompanying fig ares of this insect represent the egg, newly 
hatched larva3, and last arval stage, drawn to the same scale (fig. 11), 
and the pupal stages ai ,d the adult, also drawn to a scale, but less 




Conorhinus sanguisug a: a, first pupal stage; b, second pupal 
c, adult bug; d, same, lateral riew — all enlarged to same 
scale (original). 



Fig. 10. 
stage 



40 



PRINCIPAL HOUSEHOLD INSECTS. 



magnified than the others (fig. 10). The eggs and young larvae have 
recently been described for the first time by Miss Kimball (1. c), and 
this summer a large number of specimens in all stages were received 
from the West, from which the accompanying figures were made. 
From these specimens many eggs were obtained, and later, larva?. 

The cone-nose is a rather large insect, measuring an inch in length 
and characterized by a flattened body and very. narrow, pointed head 
and short, strong beak. In color it is dark brown, with the light areas 
indicated in the figure pinkish. Its " buggy" odor is even more intense 
than that of the bedbug. It is anight flyer and is attracted into open 




Pig. 11 — Conorhinus sanguisuga: a, larva, second stage; b, newly 
batched larva ; c, egg with sculpturing of surface shown at side — all 
enlarged to same scale — (original). 

windows by lights. It conceals itself during the day under any loose 
object, often leaving beds which it may have frequented during the night. 
The adult is not apt to take flight, but can run rather swiftly. 

The eggs are white, changing to yellow and pink before hatching, and 
of the peculiar shape indicated in the illustration. The young hatch 
within twenty days. There are at least two larval stages (fig. 11, a, b) 
and two pupal stages (fig. 10, a, b), the latter characterized by the pres- 
ence of distinct wing pads. In all these stages the insect is active and 
predaceous. The eggs are normally deposited and the early stages are 
undoubtedly passed out of doors, the food of the immature forms being 
other insects. The eggs which may be dropped indoors must fail 
normally to mature adults, and in fact immature specimens are rarely 
found indoors, and the wingless and rather sluggish larvae and pupae 
would have little opportunity of reaching the higher animals under any 
circumstances. It winters, both in the partly grown and the adult 



THE BEDBUG AND CONE-NOSE. 



41 



state, often under bark of trees or in any similar protection, and only in 
its nocturnal spring and early summer flights does it become an enemy 
of man in the effort to gratify its taste for human blood. 

This insect is particularly abundant and usually enters houses in 
early spring (April and May), sometimes in considerable numbers, and 
seems to be decidedly on the increase in the region which it particu- 
larly affects — the plains region from Texas northward and westward. 
A correspondent in Indian Territory reported having in the course of 
a short while killed upward of a dozen. Thej^ were usually found in 
the bed or near by, and their connection with the injury was often 
very plainly evident by their being found turgid with blood. 

The common California species closely resembles in appearance and 
habits the one named at the head Of this section, but is a distinct 

species and apparently undescribed. The 
local name in California for this insect is 
''monitor bug." 

The results of the bite of the cone-nose 
on the human subject vary a good deal 
with the susceptibility of the person bit- 
ten, but are often of a very serious and 
alarming character. The piercing of the 
skin is evidently accompanied by the 
injection of some poisonous liquid or 
venom, making a sore, itching wound, 
accompanied with a burning pain lasting 
sometimes from two to four days, and 
often associated with swellings, which 
may extend over a good deal of the body. 
That there is a specific poison injected is 
indicated rather conclusively by the very 
constant and uniform character of the 
symptoms in nearly all cases of bites by this insect. It has, however, 
been suggested that the very serious results which sometimes follow 
its bite may be due to the fact that it has previously thrust its beak 
into some decaying animal matter, causing a certain amount of blood 
poisoning in the patient. This theory has support in the facts stated 
by the late J. B. Lembert, of California, who says that he has noticed 
that the species of Conorhinus occurring on the Pacific Slope is 
attracted by carrion. Mr. Lembert described the effect on himself 
of a sting by this insect on the middle toe of the left foot. Following 
the sting an itching sensation extended up the leg, large blotches 
manifesting themselves on the upper part of the limb and extending 
up to the hands and arms. His lips swelled, and the itching and 
swelling extended over the head, and he was also much nauseated. 
The itching abated after four or five hours, but the swelling did not go 
down until the next day. A correspondent, writing to Prof. J. W. 




Fig. 12. — Conorhinus sanguisuga: a. head, 
showing beak; &, same, from the side, 
with piercing seta? removed from 
sheath and with tip of one of them en- 
larged; c, same, from below— much en- 
larged (original). 



42 PRINCIPAL HOUSEHOLD INSECTS. 

Touiney, describes similar results from a sting from one of these insects 
in Arizona. The patient, a woman, broke out over the body and limbs 
with red blotches or welts, like a severe case of measles, from a sting 
on the shoulder. Bathing with sweet oil soon reduced the dangerous 
symptoms, which were accompanied with severe headache and nausea. 
Similar results following the puncture of this insect have been reported 
from Indian Territory, Kansas, and elsewhere. Miss Kimball (1. c.) 
says that some relief from the effects of the bites of this insect is 
afforded by camphor, ammonia, and the ordinary remedies for insect 
stings. 

To attempt to control the out-of-door multiplicatien of this insect is 
manifestly out of the question, and in the screening of the entrances 
of houses or chambers is the only practical method of protection. It 
hardly needs stating that all examples found should be promptly 
killed. 



CHAPTER III. 

HOUSE FLIES, CENTIPEDES, AND OTHER INSECTS THAT ARE 
ANNOYING RATHER THAN DIRECTLY INJURIOUS. 

By L. O. Howard and C. L. Marxatt. 
HOUSE FLIES. 

(Musca domestica, et al.) 

In common parlance there is but one house fly, although a number of 
species are in the habit of entering houses and cause more or less 
annoyance. The most abundant form is the house fly proper (Musca 
domestica Linn.). It is a medium-sized, grayish fly, with its mouth 
parts spread out at the tip for sucking up liquid substances. It breeds 
in manure and dooryard filth and is found in nearly all parts of the 




Fig. 13.— Musca domestica: a, adult male; b, proboscis and palpus of same; c, terminal joints of 
antennae; d, head of female; e, puparium ; /, anterior spiracle— all enlarged (original). 

world. On account of the conformation of its mouth parts, the house 
fly can not bite, yet no impression is stronger in the minds of most 
people than that this insect does occasionally bite. This impression is 
due to the frequent occurrence in houses of another fly (Stomoxys calci- 
trant), which may be called the stable fly, and which, while closely 
resembling the house fly (so closely, in fact, as to deceive anyone but an 

43 



44 PRINCIPAL HOUSEHOLD INSECTS. 

entomologist), differs from it in the important particular that its mouth 
parts are formed for piercing the skin. It is perhaps second in point 
of abundance to the house fly in most portions of the Northeastern 
States. 

A third species, commonly called the cluster fly (Pollenia rudis), is a 
very frequent visitant of houses, particularly in the spring and fall. 
This fly is somewhat larger than the house fly, with a dark-colored, 
smooth abdomen and a sprinkling of yellowish hair. It is not so active 
as the house fly, and particularly in the fall is very sluggish. At such 
times it may be picked up readily, and is very subject to the attacks of 
a fungus disease which causes it to die upon window panes surrounded 
by a whitish efflorescence. Occasionally this fly occurs in houses in 
such numbers as to cause great annoyance, but such occurrences are 
comparatively rare. 

A fourth species is another stable fly known as Cyrtoneura stabulans, 
and a fifth, rather commoner than the last, is the so-called bluebottle 
fly (Calliphora erythrocephala). This insect is also called the blowfly 
or meat fly, and breeds in decaying animal material. Another species, 
about the size of the bluebottle, which breeds abundantly in cow- 
dung and is also found in bouses, although usually in less numbers 
than the others, is also commonly called the bluebottle or green-bottle 
fly (Lucilia ccesar). 

There is still another species, smaller than any of those so far men- 
tioned, which is known to entomologists as Homalomyia canicularis, 
sometimes called the small house fly. It is distinguished from the 
ordinary house fly by its paler and more pointed body and conical shape. 
The male, which is much commoner than the female, has large pale 
patches at the base of the abdomen, which are translucent. When 
seen on a window pane the light shines through that part of the body. 
Not much complaint would be made of house flies were the true house 
fly a nonexistent form. Under ordinary circumstances it far outnum- 
bers all other species in houses. Common and widespread as this 
species is, there is very general ignorance, as with many other extremely 
common insects, as to its life history and habits outside of the adult 
stage. Writing in 1873, Dr. A. S. Packard 1 showed that no one in this 
country had up to that time investigated its habits, and that even in 
Europe but little attention had been given to it. He showed that the 
habits were mentioned in only three works, one of which was published 
during the present century, with figures so poor and inadequate as to 
be actually misleading. De Geer (1752) showed that t..e larva lives in 
warm and humid dung, but did not say how long it remains in the 
different stages. Bouche (1834)states that the larvi lives in horse and 
fowl's dung, especially when warm; he did not, however, give the 
length of the larval state. 

1 On the Transformations of the Common Honse Fly, with Notes on Allied Forms. 
Proc. Boston Soc. Nat. Hist., Vol. XVI, 1874, p. 136. 



45 



Dr. Packard studied the species with some care, and obtained large 
numbers of the eggs by exposing horse manure. He carefully followed 
the transformations of the insect, and gave descriptions of all stages. 
He found the duration of the egg state to be twenty-four hours, the 
duration of the larval state live to seven days, and of the pupal state 
live to seven days. The period from the time of hatching to the exclu- 
sion of the adult, therefore, occupies, according to Packard, from ten to 
fourteen days. His observations were made at Salem, Mass. 

As is quite to be expected, as we go further south the house fly 
becomes more numerous and more troublesome. The number of gen- 
erations annually increases as the season becomes longer, and with the 
warm climate the develop- 
ment of the larvae becomes 
more rapid. A few rearing 
experiments were made in 
this office during the summer 
of 1895, and it was unexpect- 
edly found that the house fly 
is a difficult insect to rear in 
confinement. Buzzing about 
everywhere, and apparently 
living with ease under the 
most adverse conditions, it is 
nevertheless, when confined 
in the warm season of the 
year to a small receptacle, 
not at all tenacious of life. 
It results from this fact, for 
examine, that it is almost 
impossible to ascertain the 
length of the life of the house 
fly in the adult condition. 
On June 26 a small quantity 
of fresh horse manure was 
exposed in a fly-infested room 
for a few minutes. The flies 

deposited their eggs freely and immediately in this substance. 1 At the 
same time the specimens were confined in a glass dish 7.5 inches in diam- 
eter and 3 inches in height, hi this dish was a layer of moist sand, cov- 
ered with a layer of fresh horse manure, and the vessel was covered with 
a piece of gauze. On the following morning all the flies, twenty-four in 
number, were dead, and not a single egg had been laid. A fresh sup- 
ply of flies was introduced into the same vessel, and the next morning all 
were dead and no eggs had been laid. The cover was now removed from 
this vessel and'the latter placed in a glass cylinder 14 inches high, the 




Fig. 14. — Musca domestica: a, full-grown larva; 6, one of 
its anterior spiracles; c, side view of head; d, hind end 
of body showing anal spiracles; e, side vieAY of head; 
/, head from above; g, head of young larva from above; 
h, eggs — all enlarged (original). 



1 The experiments which follow were conducted by Mr. D. W. Coquillett. 



46 



PRINCIPAL HOUSEHOLD INSECTS. 



top of which was covered with gauze, and twenty flies introduced. 
This was at noon; by 4 o'clock in the afternoon no eggs could be found, 
but at 9 o'clock the next morning two clusters of eggshells, one cluster 
containing 2G and the other 45 eggs, were found. The eggs had been 
deposited in small cavities between the sides of the vessel and the 
manure, at a depth of about a quarter of an inch below the surface, 
but were not arranged in any regular order. Afterwards several black- 
berries, cherries, and partly decayed apples were placed in this vessel, 
and more flies were introduced. A single egg was found the next day 
on the upper side of one of the blackberries. At a later date experi- 
ments were tried in the same jar with fresh cow manure. Apparently 
no eggs were deposited until the third day, when two small clusters 
were observed. These hatched in due time, but all the larvae died 

before attaining full growth. 

These experiments were 
hardly extensive enough to al- 
low us to generalize, but so far 
as they go they seem to show 
that horse manure is the favorite 
breeding place of the house fly. 
Continuous observations made 
upon the offspring of flies which 
bred most freely in this last- 
named substance indicated that 
the larvae molt twice and that 
there are thus three distinct 
larval stages. The periods of 
development were found to be 
about as follows : Egg from de- 
position to hatching, one-third 
of a day; hatching of larva to first molt, one day; first to second molt, 
one day; second molt to pupation, three days; pupation to issuing of 
the adult, five days; total life round, approximately ten days. There 
is thus abundance of time for the development of twelve or thirteen 
generations in the climate of Washington every summer. 

The number of eggs laid by an individual fly is undoubtedly very 
large, averaging about 120, and the enormous numbers in which the 
insects occur is thus plainly accounted for, especially when we consider 
the abundance and universal occurrence of appropriate larval food. 
The different stages of the insect are well illustrated in the accompany- 
ing figures and need no description. 

Taschenberg in his Praktische Insektenkunde, iv, 1880, 102-107, gives 
a good popular account of the house fly, but leaves the impression that 
the duration of a generation is much longer than we have indicated. 
He also states that the female lays its eggs on a great variety of sub- 
stances, particularly on spoiled and moist food stuffs, decaying meat, 




Fig. 15.— Musca domcstica: a, pupa removed from 
puparium ; b, hind end of body of larva in second 
stage; c, anal spiracles of larva in first stage— all 
enlarged (original). 



HOUSE FLIES, CENTIPEDES, AND OTHER INSECTS. 47 

meat broth, cut melons, dead auimals, in manure pits, on manure heaps, 
and even in cuspidors and open snuff boxes. The fact remains how- 
ever that horse manure forms the principal breeding place, and that in 
confinement we have been unable to rear it to maturity on any other 
substance. 

There is not much that need be said about remedies for house flies. 
A careful screening of windows and doors during the summer months, 
with the supplementary use of sticky fly paper, is a method known to 
everyone, and there seems to be little hope in the near future of much 
relief by doing away with the breeding places. A single stable in 
which a horse is kept will supply house flies for an extended neighbor- 
hood. People living in agricultural communities will probably never 
be rid of the pest, but in cities, with better methods of disposal of 
garbage and with the lessening of the numbers of horses and horse 
stables consequent upon electric street railways and bicycles, and 
probably horseless carriages, the time may come, and before very long 
when window screens may be discarded. The prompt gathering of 
borne manure which may be treated with lime or kept in a specially 
prepared pit would greatly abate the fly nuisance, and city ordinances 
compelling horse owners to follow some such course are desirable. 
Absolute cleanliness, even under existing circumstances, will always 
result in a diminution of the numbers of the house fl} T , and, as will be 
pointed out in other cases in this bulletin, most household insects are 
less attracted to the premises of what is known as the -old-fashioned 
housekeeper than to those of the other kind. 

The house fly has a number of natural enemies, and, as will be pointed 
out in the next section of this bulletin, the common house centipede 
destroys it in considerable numbers; there is a small reddish mite 
which frequently covers its body and gradually destroys it; it is sub- 
ject to the attacks of hymenopterous parasites in its larval condition, 
and it is destroyed by predatory beetles at the same time. The most 
effective enemy, however, is a fungous disease known as Empusina muscce, 
which carries off flies in large numbers, particularly toward the close 
of the season. The epidemic ceases in December, and although many 
thousands are killed by it, the remarkable rapidity of development in 
the early summer months soon more than replaces the. thousands thus 
destroyed. 

L. O. H. 

THE HOUSE CENTIPEDE. 

(Scutigera forceps Raf.) 

This centipede, particularly within the last ten or twelve years, has 
become altogether too common an object in dwelling houses in the 
Middle and Northern States for the peace of mind of the inmates. It is a 
very fragile creature, capable of very rapid movements, and elevated con- 
siderably above the surface upon which it runs by very numerous long 
legs. It may often be seen darting across floors with very great speed, 



48 



PRINCIPAL HOUSEHOLD INSECTS. 



occasionally stopping suddenly and remaining absolutely motionless, 
presently to resume its rapid movements, often darting directly at 
inmates of the bouse, particularly women, evidently with a desire to con- 
ceal itself beneath their dresses, and thus creating considerable conster- 
nation. The creature is not a true insect, but belongs to the Myriopoda, 
commonly known as centipedes or thousand-legs, and is sometimes 
called the " skein" centipede, from the fact that when crushed or 
motionless it looks, from its numerous long legs, like a mass of fila- 
ments or threads. It is a creature of the damp, and is particularly 

abundant in bathrooms, moist closets, and cel- 
lars, multiplying excessively also in conserv- 
atories, especially about places where pots are 
stored, and near heating pipes. In houses it 
will often be dislodged from behind furniture 
or be seen to run rapidly across the room, 
either in search of food or concealment. If 
examined closely its very cleanly habits may 
occasionally be manifested in that it may be 
observed to pass its long legs, one after an- 
other, through its mandibles, to remove any 
adhering dust. Its rather weird appearance, 
its peculiar manner of locomotion, and fre- 
quently its altogether too friendly way of ap- 
proaching people, give it great interest, and, 
with its increasing abundance in the North, 
make it a subject of frequent inquiry. It is a 
Southern species, its normal habitat being in 
the so.uthern tier of States and southwestward 
through Texas into Mexico. It has slowly 
spread northward, having been observed in 
Pennsylvania as early as 1849, and reaching 
New York and Massachusetts twenty or 
twenty-five years ago, but for many years after 
its first appearance in the latter States it was 
of rare occurrence. It is now very common 
throughout New York and the New England 
States, and extends westward well beyond 
the Mississippi, probably to the mountains. 
It is a very delicate creature, and it is almost impossible to catch it, 
even should one desire to do so, without dismembering several of its 
numerous legs or crushing it. If crushed under the foot, as one's first 
impulse would suggest, nothing remains but a mass of intertwined 
limbs, giving it the appearance of a tangle of threads. If captured, so 
that it can be more easily examined, it will be found to consist of a 
worm-like body of an inch or a little more in length, armed at the head 
with a pair of very long, slender antennae, and along the sides with a 




IPlG.lG.—Sciitigera forceps: Adult- 
natural size (original). 



HOUSE FLIES, CENTIPEDES, AND OTHER INSECTS. 



49 



fringe of fifteen pairs of long legs. The last pair are mnch longer than 
the others, in the female more than twice the length of the body. In 
color it is of a grayish yellow, marked above with three longitudinal 
dark stripes. Examination of its mouth parts shows that they are very 
powerful, and fitted for biting, indicating a predatory or carnivorous 
habit. 

The indications of its mouth parts are borne out by its food habits, 
besides beiug indicated by the known food habits of the other members 
of the group of centipedes to which it belongs. It was inferred, before 
any direct observations were made, that its food was probably house 
flies, roaches, and any other insect inhabitants of dwellings. Later 
many direct observations have confirmed this inference, and in cap- 




Fig. 17. — Scutigera forceps : a, newly-hatched individual: b. one of legs of 
same ; c. terminal segment of body showing undeveloped legs coiled up 
within— all enlarged (original). 

tivity. on the authority of Professor Hargitt, it feeds readily on roaches, 
house flies, and other insects. Miss Murtfeldt reports also having 
observed specimens devouring small moths. During the act of devour- 
ing a moth they kept their numerous long legs vibrating with incredible 
swiftness, so as to give the appearance of a hazy spot or space sur- 
rounding the fluttering moth (Insect Life, Vol. YI, p. 258). It is sup- 
posed also to feed on the bedbug, and doubtless will eat any insect 
which it captures, and its quickness and agility leave few insects safe 
from it. 

Messrs. Fletcher and Howard observed its mode of capturing the 
croton bug, which is interesting as illustrating the habits of this centi- 
pede and its allies. In this instance the centipede sprang over its 
21470— Xo. 4 — -4 



50 PRINCIPAL HOUSEHOLD INSECTS. 

prey, inclosing and caging it with its many legs. In its habit of spring- 
ing after its prey this centipede is similar to spiders, which it also 
resembles in its rapacious habits. It would therefore seem to be a very 
efficient enemy of many of our house pests. The common idea that it 
probably feeds on household goods and woolens or other clothing has 
no basis in fact. 

The popular belief is that this centipede is extremely poisonous, 
and, as it belongs with the poisonous group of centipedes, it can not 
be questioned but that the bite of the creature is probably somewhat 
poisonous as well as painful, though the seriousness of the results will 
be dependent, as in all similar cases, on the susceptibility of the patient. 
The poison injected in the act of biting is probably merely to assist in 
numbing and quieting its victim, and in spite of its abundance in houses 
in the North, and for many years its much greater abundance in the 
South, very few cases are recorded of its having bitten any human 
being, and it is very questionable whether it would ever, unprovoked, 
attack any large animal. If pressed with the bare foot or hand, or if 
caught between sheets in beds, this, like almost any other insect, will 
unquestionably bite in self-defense, and the few such cases on record 
indicate that severe swelling and pain may result from the poison 
injected. Prompt dressing of the wound with ammonia will greatly 
alleviate the disagreeable symptoms. 

Little is known of the early life history of this Myriapod. It is 
found in the adult state in houses during practically the entire year. 
Half-grown individuals are also found frequently during the summer. 
A newly-born specimen was recently found by Mr. H. G. Hubbard in 
the Department Insectary under a moist section of a log, and differed 
from the older forms chiefly in possessing fewer legs. Its character- 
istics are indicated in the accompanying illustration (fig. 17). In the 
half-grown and later stages it does not differ materially from the adult, 
except in size, and its habits throughout life are probably subject to 
little variation. 

If it were not for its uncanny appearance, which is hardly calculated 
to inspire confidence, especially when it is darting at one with great 
speed, and the rather poisonous nature of its bite, it would not neces- 
sarily be an unwelcome visitor in bouses, but, on the contrary, to be 
looked upon rather as an aid in keeping in check various household 
pests. Its appearance in our dwellings, however, will not often be wel- 
come notwithstanding its useful role. It can be best controlled by 
promptly destroying all the individuals which make their appearance, 
and by keeping the moist places in houses free from any object behind 
which it can conceal itself, or at least subjecting such locations to 
freqent inspection. In places near water pipes, or in storerooms where 
it may secrete itself and occur in some numbers, a tree use of fresh 
pyrethrum powder is to be advised. 

G. L. M. 



HOUSE FLIES, CENTIPEDES, AND OTHER INSECTS. 



51 



THE CLOVER MITE. 

(Bryobia pratensis Garm.) 

The subject of this section is a very minute reddish mite, less than a 
millimeter in length, which, particularly in the Middle States, fre- 
quently enters houses in enormous numbers in autumn, causing' consid- 
erable consternation and arousing very natural fears. Aside from the 




Mcuhc^c 



Fig. 18.— Bryobia pratensis: a, female from above; b, same, ventral view, with legs removed; c 
and d, tarsal claws; e, proboscis and palpi from below; /, proboscis enlarged; g, palpus enlarged; h, 
oneof the body scales; i, scale from outer cephalo-thoracic prominence; j, scale from inner cephalo- 
thoracic prominence; k, serrate hair from basal joint of leg; I, same from penultimate joint; m, 
spine of last joint— a, &, greatly enlarged; c-ra, still more enlarged (from Riley and Marlatt). 



52 



PRINCIPAL HOUSEHOLD INSECTS. 



disagreeableness of its mere presence, it has no objectionable conse- 
quences. This mite is somewhat allied to the common red mite of 
greenhouses, and in fact has a similar habit, but lives out of doors on 
vegetation and has a decided preference for clover, whence its common 
name of clover mite. It occurs very commonly in the Northern and 
Central States from Massachusetts to California, and is frequently 
abundant on various orchard and shade trees. In the mountain ranges 
of the Pacific Coast its eggs have been found in enormous numbers on 
the bark of various mountain trees, especially the cottonwood (Populiis 
tremuloides). These eggs are often massed two or three layers deep, 

and their reddish color entirely obscures 
the natural color of the bark. One writer 
states that he found at least 50 square feet 
of these eggs on the south sides of the 
trunks of cottonwoods at an elevation of 
6,000 to 8,000 feet. In the Eastern and 
Central States the eggs are found similarly 
placed in the crotches of orchard and shade 
trees, and frequently in sufficient numbers 
to give a reddish color to small areas. 
Complaints of this mite have been received 
from a great many sources in the Middle 
and Eastern States. That they are a nui- 
sance in houses is due to their habit of 
migrating in the fall, possibly for shelter 
or in search of food. In the case of house 
invasions the mites will almost invariably 
be found to have* come from some near-by vegetation, usually from the 
surrounding lawns. After they have once gained entrance they may 
be exterminated by a liberal and abundant use of insect powders, fumi- 
gating with burning brimstone, or spraying with benzine, care being 
taken, if the latter substance be used, to see that no fire is present. If 
the invasion be discovered at the very outset, it may be stopped by 
spraying the sides of the house very liberally with kerosene or by treat- 
ing the surrounding lawns with a spray of kerosene emulsion. 

C. L. M. 




Fig. 19. — Bryobia pratensis: Newly- 
hatched larva — greatly enlarged 
(from Riley and Maria tt). 



THE HOUSE CRICKET. 

{Gryllus domesticus Linn.) 

No insect inhabitants of dwellings are better known than the domestic 
or hearth crickets, not so much from observation of the insects them- 
selves as from familiarity with their vibrant, shrilling song notes, 
which, while thoroughly inharmonious in themselves, are, partly from 
the difficulty in locating the songster, often given a superstitious sig- 
nificance and taken, according to the mood of the listener, to be either 



HOUSE FLIES, CENTIPEDES, AND OTHER INSECTS. 



53 



a harbinger of good and indicative of cheerfulness and plenty, or to 
give rise to melancholy and to betoken misfortune. The former idea 
prevails, however, and Cowper expresses the common belief that the — 

Sounds inharmonious in themselves and harsh, 
Yet heard in scenes where peace forever reigns, 
And only there, please highly for their sake. 

The common name "cricket" is descriptive of its cheerful, chirping 
note, and is derived from the imitative French popular name " cricri" 
(from criquer). Similar descriptive names are applied to it in many 
foreign tongues. 

The introduction of the domestic cricket of Europe into America 
was probably at a very early date, at least in portions of the country. 
Kalm, a careful and scientific observer, writing in 1749 of this insect, 
says that they are '• abundant in Canada, 
especially in the country, where these dis- 
agreeable guests lodge in the chimneys; 
nor are they uncommon in the towns. 
They stay here both summer and winter, 
and frequently cut clothes in pieces for 
pastime." The year before, however, he 
writes that he had not met witli them in 
any of the houses in Pennsylvania or 
New Jersey. 1 

The occurrence of this insect in Canada 
in comparative abundance has since been 
confirmed by Provancher and Caulfield, 
and in various Eastern towns in the 
United States by Uhler, Glover . and others. 
It has also been observed in various States 

westward to and beyond the Mississippi. It does not seem to be at 
all common on this continent, however, except in Canada, and the more 
familiar insect to most Americans is one or other of our brownish-black 
field crickets, which often enter houses and accommodate themselves 
to domesticity almost as completely as the true European hearth 
cricket. Our native crickets are more robust and of larger size, but 
present the same tendency of location and food habits as their Euro- 
pean relatives. A species (Gryllus assimilis Fab.) often found in 
houses in Washington is represented in fig. 21. The following account 
of the imported domestic cricket applies in the main also to any of our 
native species which are acquiring domesticity. Our species are, how- 
ever, not known to breed in houses, although it is not at all improb- 
able that this is now occasionally true of some of them. 

The house cricket belongs to the jumping or saltatorial family of the 
Orthoptera, being closely allied to the common field crickets and the 
curions mole' cricket. The normal mode of progression is by a series of 




Fig. 20. — Gryllus domesticus: a, male; 
b, female — natural size (original). 



1 Travels, Vol. I, p. 318; II, p. 256. 



54 



PRINCIPAL HOUSEHOLD INSECTS. 



leaps, the hind femora being greatly thickened and enlarged, kangaroo- 
like. In color the house cricket is light yellowish-brown, and its squarish 
body and spherical head are very characteristic. The antennae or feelers 
are very long and thread-like, exceeding the body in length. 

The chirping song of the cricket is produced only by the male, and 
is supposed to be a love call. If so, it has been pointed out that it 
evidently betokens, on account of its long continuance, a patient per- 
sistence which deserves the highest encomium. It is produced by the 
friction or stridulatiori of the upper wings over each other. At the 
base of each of these wings is a large talc-like spot — the crepitaculum — 

which is characterized by 
its inflated appearance 
and its very coarse, irreg- 
ular veining. By rasping 
or scraping the file-like 
under surface of one wing 
over the roughening of the 
other the vibrant note of 
the cricket is x>roduced. 
The song is, therefore, 
analogous to that made 
by an instrument rather 
than to thevoiceor sounds 
of higher animals. To be 
at all significant to the in- 
sect, however, it must be 
heard, and what seems to 
be the insect ear is found 
in curious organs on the 
fore tibiae, represented in 
the illustration (fig. 21, 
o,d,e,f). 

The house cricket usu- 
ally occurs on the ground 
floor of dwellings, and 
evinces its liking for warmth by often occurring in the vicinity of 
fireplaces, concealing itself between the bricks of chimneys or behind 
baseboards, frequently burrowing into the mortar of walls. It is par- 
ticularly apt to abound in bakehouses. It is rarely very abundant, 
but at times multiplies excessively and becomes a very serious nuisance. 
During cold weather, or in cold rooms in winter, it remains torpid, but 
under the influence of warmth it becomes active and musical. It is 
easily kept in captivity as a pet, and will reward the possessor by 
furnishing an abundance of its peculiar melody, and in Spain it is often 
kept, it is reported, in cages, as we do singing birds. It is in the main 
nocturnal in its habits, coming out in the dusk of evening and roaming 




FlG. 21. —Gryllus assimilis : a, female-; 6, male; c, d, fore tibiae, 
inner and outer views showing drums of ear: e and /, drums 
or tympana — enlarged (original). 



HOUSE FLIES, CENTIPEDES, AND OTHER INSECTS. 



55 



about the house for whatever food materials it may discover. It feeds 
readily on bread crumbs or almost any food product to which it can 
get access, and is j>articularly attracted to liquids, in its eagerness to 
get at which it often meets death by drowning. It is a very pugnacious 
insect and will bite vigorously if captured, and is also predaceous or 
carnivorous, like most of its outdoor allies. It is supposed to feed on 
various other house insects, such as the cockroach and is also probably 
cannibalistic. A pair of a native species kept in a cage by the writer, 
for a short period manifested the greatest friendliness, but the male 
shortly afterwards made a very substantial meal of his companion. 

The crickets, in common with most other Orthoptera, will occasion- 
al^, in pure wantonness seemingly, cut and injure fabrics, and are 
particularly apt to cut into wet clothing, evidently from their liking 
for moisture. Any of the 
common field grasshop- 
pers or crickets, entering 
houses, are apt to try 
their sharp jaws on cur- 
tains, garments, etc., and 
Dr. J. A. Lintner records 1 
the case of a suit of cloth- 
ing just from the tailor 
which was completely 
ruined in a night by 
a common black field 
cricket ( Gryllus luctuosus), 
whichhad entered an open 
window in some numbers. 
There is a popular super- 
stition also to the effect 
that if a cricket be killed its relatives will promptly cut the garments 
of the offender. 

In Europe, and undoubtedly also in this country, the hearth cricket 
is found in houses in all sizes, from the very young to the full-grown 
insects, and probably often deposits its eggs and goes through its 
entire transformations within the four walls of dwellings. In summer 
it also appears frequently out of doors in Europe about hedges aud in 
gardens, returning to the house for protection at the approach of cold 
weather, and being apparently unable to winter out of doors, at least 
in cold climates. In this country it has been taken at electric lights 
out of doors. Its eggs, judging from our knowledge of allied species, 
are deposited in clusters, and the young resemble their parents very 
closely, except in size and in lacking wings; they present also no 
variation in habit. 

So much superstition and popular interest attaches to the house 




Fig. 22.— Gryllus assimilis: a, wing of female; 6, wing of 
male showing more irregular and coarser veining— enlarged 
(original) . 



8th Rept. Ins. N. Y., p. 179. 



56 PRINCIPAL HOUSEHOLD INSECTS. 

cricket that frequently there is a strong feeling against destroying it; 
and to many it is a pleasant incentive to revery, filling the mind with 
pleasant contemplations, and perhaps lulling the wakeful to restful 
sleep. Not to all, however, does it appeal in this way, and for those 
to whom its notes are rasping and irritating, and who fear for the 
safety of their garments, or are otherwise evilly disposed toward it, 
the following methods of control will be of interest: 

It may be readily destroyed by taking advantage of its liking for 
liquids, and any vessel containing beer or other liquid placed about 
will usually result in crickets being collected and drowned in numbers. 
It may also be destroyed by the distribution of uncooked vegetables, 
such as ground-up carrots or potatoes, strongly poisoned with arsenic. 
In the use of poisoned baits in dwellings great care, however, should 
always be exercised. 

C. L. M. 

THE PAPER WASP. 

( Vespa germanica Fab.) 

It frequently happens, more particularly in suburban places and in 
the country, that the common yellow jackets or paper wasps, notably 
Vespa germanica Fab , will have their nests near dwellings and mul- 
tiply to such an extent as to become serious nuisances about houses, to 
which they are attracted by the moisture about wells or to fruit refuse. 
Under these circumstances they become a source of some danger from 
the liability of their stinging horses. Unless houses are carefully 
screened they will frequently be attracted into them in considerable 
numbers, and on account of their pugnacious disposition render meal 
taking a proceeding of considerable risk. They have a great fondness 
for all sweetened liquids and will swarm over fruit, especially melons. 

The species most apt to be annoying in houses in the East is the one 
mentioned at the head of this article. It is of European origin, and, 
like many other introduced animals, as the English sparrow, for exam- 
ple, has become even more numerous in its new home than in its old. 
It sometimes nests in trees in Europe, but in this country commonly 
dwells in large underground colonies located usually only a few inches 
below the surface, and often in the deserted nests of field mice, which 
have been cleaned out and greatly enlarged by their insect tenants. 

The nest consists of a loose papery envelope, Avithin which are from 
four to eight stories or tiers of combs, attached to each other with strong 
central supports. The largest combs sometimes have a diameter of 12 
inches and the larger nests a capacity of upward of one-half bushel. 
Throughout the summer a colony contains, in addition to the queen 
mother, workers only. The perfectly sexed individuals, females or 
queens and males, appear only in the fall, usually in September, are 
much larger than the workers, and are reared in special cells of large 
size in the undermost or last constructed of the combs. 



HOUSE FLIES, CENTIPEDES, AND OTHER INSECTS. 57 

With the approach of cold weather the nests are abandoned, most 
of the individuals, including all the workers and males, perishing, and 
only the perfect females, the product of the last fall brood, wintering 
over. Early in spring these over- wintered females come out of the 
cracks in logs or holes in walls, etc., in which they have hibernated, and 
unaided originate new colonies of workers, which by midsummer often 
contain 20,000 or more individuals. Xo honey, wax, or pollen is stored 
in the nests, but the young are fed by the workers on a liquid derived 
from insects or other substances eaten. 

The paper wasps have a number of natural enemies. They are cap- 
tured and devoured by two species of robber flies, and in addition their 
underground nests, as I am informed by woodmen, are frequently dug 
out by foxes and skunks, which feed on the larvae and pupae contained 
in them. 

The best means of abating the wasp nuisance is to discover the nest 
and destroy the inmates. Ordinarily by watching individual wasps the 
nest can be located, and the introduction of a few spoonfuls of chloro- 
form or bisulphide of carbon into the entrance, after all have come in for 
the night, will suffice to destroy the inhabitants. 

Other Yespas, especially the common bald-faced hornet ( Vespamacu- 
lata Linn.), which builds large paper nests in trees, also enter houses, 
but not so abundant!}" as the small yellow and black species referred to. 
The slender yellowish-brown wasps {Polistes spp.), which build uncovered 
combs attached to rafters and in trees, are also frequent visitors in 
houses, but are not so pugnacious and will rarely attack anyone unless 
they are accidentally taken hold of or their nests disturbed. All of these 
wasps are of more or less service to housekeepers in that they are 
active enemies of the common house rlv. 

C. L. M. 



CHAPTER IV. 

SPECIES INJURIOUS TO WOOLEN GOODS, CLOTHING, CARPETS, 

UPHOLSTERY, ETC. 

By L. O. Howard and C. L. Marlatt. 

THE CARPET BEETLE, OR "BUFFALO MOTH." 

(Anthrenus scrophutarice Linn.) 

All the year round, in well heated houses, but more frequently in 
summer and fall, an active brown larva a quarter of an inch or less in 
length and clothed with stiff brown hairs, which are longer around the 
sides and still longer at the ends than on the back, feeds upon carpets 
and woolen goods, working in a hidden manner from the under surface, 
sometimes making irregular holes, but more frequently following the 
line of a floor crack and cutting long slits in a carpet. 




Fig. 23. — Anthrenus tcrophularioe : a, larva, dorsal view; b, pupa within larval skin; c, pupa, ventral 
view; d, adult — all enlarged — (from Riley). 

This insect in the United States is known as a carpet beetle in the 
northern part of the country only. Beginning with Massachusetts, it 
extends west to Kansas. It is not known as a carpet beetle in Wash- 
ington or Baltimore, and is not common in Philadelphia, but abounds 
in New York, Boston, all the New England States, and west through 
Ohio, Indiana, Michigan, Wisconsin, Illinois, Iowa, and Kansas. It is 
originally a European insect and is found in all parts of Europe. It 
was imported into this country about 1874, probably almost simultane- 
ously at New York and Boston. It has long been known on the Pacific 
Coast, but not, so far as we are aware, in the role of a carpet enemy. 

The adult insect is a small, broad-oval beetle, about three-sixteenths 
of an inch long, black in color, but is covered with exceedingly minute 
scales, which give it a marbled black-and-white appearance. It also 
58 



SPECIES INJURIOUS TO WOOLEN GOODS, ETC. 59 

has a red stripe down the middle of the back, widening into projections 
at three intervals. When disturbed it " plays 'possum," folding- up its 
legs and antennae and feigning death. As a general thing the beetles 
begin to appear in the fall, and continue to issue, in heated houses, 
throughout the winter and following spring. Soon after issuing they 
pair, and the females lay their eggs in convenient spots. The eggs 
hatch, under favorable conditions, in a few days, and the larvae, with 
plenty of food, develop quite rapidly. Their development is retarded 
by cold weather or lack of food, and they remain alive in the larval 
state, in such conditions, and particularly in a dry atmosphere, for an 
almost indefinite period, molting frequently and feeding upon their cast 
skins. Under normal conditions, however, the skin is cast about six 
times, and there is, probably, in the North,, not more than two annual 
generations. When the larva reaches full growth the yellowish pupa 
is formed within the last larval skin. Eventually this skin splits down 
the back and reveals the pupa, from which the beetle emerges later. 
The beetles are day fliers, and when not engaged in egg laying are 
attracted to the light. They fly to the windows, and may often be found 
upon the sills or panes. Where they can fly out through an open window 
they do so, and are strongly attracted to the flowers of certain plants, 
particularly the family Scrophulariaceae, but also to certain Compositae, 
such as milfoil {Achillea millefolium). The flowers of Spiraea are also 
strongly attractive to the beetles. It is probable, however, that this 
migration from the house takes place, under ordinary circumstances, 
after the eggs have been laid. 

In Europe the insect is not especially noted as a household pest, and 
we are inclined to think that this is owing to the fact that carpets are 
little used. In fact, we believe that only where carpets are extensively 
used are the conditions favorable for the great increase of the insect. 
Carpets once put down are seldom taken up for a year, and in the 
meantime the insect develops uninterruptedly. Where polished floors 
and rugs are used the rugs are often taken up and beaten, and in the 
same way woolens and furs are never allowed to remain undisturbed 
for an entire year. It is a well-known fact that the carpet habit is a 
bad one from other points of view, and there is little doubt that if car- 
pets were more generally discarded in our more Northern States the 
"buffalo bug" would gradually cease to be the household pest that it 
is to-day. The insect is known in Europe as a museum pest, but has 
not acquired this habit to any great extent in this country. It is 
known to have this habit in Cambridge, Mass., and Detroit, Mich., as 
well as in San Francisco, Cal., but not in other localities. In all of 
these three cases it had been imported from Europe in insect collections. 

REMEDIES. 

There is no easy way to keep the carpet beetle in check. When it 
has once taken possession of a house nothing but the most thorough 



60 PRINCIPAL HOUSEHOLD INSECTS. 

and long- continued measures will eradicate it. The practice of annual 
house cleaning, so often carelessly and hurriedly performed, is, as we 
have shown above, peculiarly favorable to the development of the 
insect. Two house cleanings would be better than one, and if but one, 
it would be better to undertake it in midsummer than at any other time 
of the year. Where convenience or conservatism den ands an adher- 
ence to the old custom, however, we have simply to insist upon extreme 
thoroughness and a slight variation in the customary methods. The 
rooms should be attended to one or two at a time. The carpets should 
be taken up, thoroughly beaten, and sprayed out of doors with ben- 
zine, and allowed to air for several hours. The rooms themselves should 
be thoroughly swept and dusted, the floors washed down with hot water, 
the cracks carefully cleaned out, and kerosene or benzine poured into 
the cracks and sprayed under the baseboards. The extreme inflamma- 
bility of benzine, and even its vapor when confined, should be remem- 
bered and tire carefully guarded against. Where the floors are poorly 
constructed and the cracks are wide it will be a good idea to fill the 
cracks with plaster of paris in a liquid state; this will afterwards set 
and lessen the number of harboring places for the insect. Before relay- 
ing the carpet tarred roofing paper should be laid upon the floor, at 
least around the edges, but preferably over the entire surface, and when 
the carpet is relaid it will be well to tack it down rather lightly, so that 
it can be occasionally lifted at the edges and examined for the presence 
of the insect. Later in the season, if such an examination shows the 
insect to have made its appearance, a good though somewhat laborious 
remedy consists in laying a damp cloth smoothly over the suspected 
spot of the carpet and ironing it with a hot iron. The steam thus gen- 
erated will pass through the carpet and kill the insects immediately 
beneath it. 

The measures used in the care of furs, rugs, and woolen goods gen- 
erally to prevent the work of this insect during the summer are prac- 
tically identical with those recommended for the clothes moths, 
elsewhere mentioned. The most perfect and simplest is storage at a 
temperature of from 40 to 42° F. For the cheaper methods the reader 
is referred to the chapter on clothes moths. 

These strenuous measures, if persisted in, are the only hope of the 
good housekeeper, so long as the system of heavy carpets covering the 
entire floor surface is adhered to. Good housekeepers are conservative 
people, but we expect eventually to see a more general adoption of the 
rug or of the square of carpet, which may at all times be readily exam- 
ined and treated if found necessary. Where the floors are bad the 
practice of laying straw mattings under the rugs produces a sightly 
appearance, and, while not as cleanly as a bare floor, affords still fewer 

harboring places for this insect. 

L. O. H. 



SPECIES INJURIOUS TO WOOLEN GOODS, ETC. 



61 



THE BLACK CARPET BEETLE. 

{Attagenus piceus Oliv.) 

This carpet beetle occurs in general in the same situations in which 
the preceding species is found. The larva is an active, light-brown, 
somewhat cylindrical creature, clothed with closely appressed hairs, 
and with a long terminal tuft of hairs at the end of the body. It is 
readily distinguished from the so-called "buffalo moth" by its shape 
and in general by its lighter color. It is not so fond of working in 
cracks and cutting long slits in carpets, and in general is not so dan- 
gerous a species as the other. 

This insect has been a denizen of the United States certainly since 
1854. It is widespread in Europe and Asia, and first attracted atten- 
tion as a carpet insect in this country in 1879, when Dr. Lintner found 



f^mhn 





Fig. 24. 



-Attagenus piceus : a, larva; b, pupa; c, adult; d, dorsal abdominal segments of pupa; above, 
at left, male and female antennae— all enlarged (original). 



it in connection with the " buffalo moth" at Schenectady, K. Y. It had 
previously been observed by Hagen in Cambridge, in the Museum of Nat- 
ural History, at an early date, and had been found in feathers by Walsh. 
Since 1880 it has become very abundant in Washington, D. C, and 
here takes the place of Anthrenus scrophularke. It has been received 
at the division of entomology from Goff'stown, N. H. ; Hartford, Conn.; 
New York City, Lawrence, Long Island, "S. Y.; Washington and Cha- 
grin Falls, Ohio; Detroit, Agricultural College, Charlotte, and Drain, 
Mich.; Philadelphia, Pa.; Wadestown, W. Va., and Memphis, Tenn. 
From hearsay information the writer believes that it is also more 
or less abundant in houses in Charleston, S. C, Savannah, Ga., and 
Jacksonville, Fla. 
The adult insect is a small, oval, black beetle of the general appearance 



62 PRINCIPAL HOUSEHOLD INSECTS. 

indicated in the figure. It is readily distinguished from Anthrenus 
scrophulariw. Its natural history has not been studied in detail, bat 
there is little doubt that it is similar to that of the other species. It 
seems to have a particular predilection for feathers and has several 
times been observed to produce in feather beds a peculiar felting of the 
ticking. It has also been known to infest flour mills and is to a certain 
extent a feeder upon cereal products. It is a museum pest of consid- 
erable importance, and, in fact, when first discovered in connection 
with the Anthrenus, by Dr. Lintner, it was supposed to be present 
around the margin of carpets simply in search of dead flies and other 
animal matter, such as cast skins of Anthrenus, < tc. In 1878 Dr. Hagen 
stated in the Proceedings of the Boston Society of Natural History that 
during late years this insect had propagated to a fearful extent in many 
houses in Cambridge, and that he believed it to be responsible for fully 
half of all the destruction ascribed to the previous species. In the 
arranged collection of the Museum of Comparative Zoology it occurred 
only rarely, and Dr. Hagen always found a crack or a slit in the infested 
box through which the thin and slender young larva had entered. The 
insect, he said, could always be recognized by the small, globular, ocher- 
ous excrement. Mr. Schwarz, writing in 1890, spoke of the recent 
increase in numbers of this insect in Washington, D. C. As a museum 
pest he had found it frequently in insect boxes which were not quite 
tight, but, fortunately, this species does not seem to be able to enter 
through as small a crack as Anthrenus or Trogoderma. In January, 
1892, Mrs. Horace French, of Elgin, Kane County, 111., wrote us that 
many houses in Elgin were infested both by this species and by the 
buffalo carpet beetle. The black carpet beetle, however, seemed, accord- 
ing to the correspondent, to work constantly through the year, unmind- 
ful of change of temperature, while the other species did little damage 
except during the warmer months. Her own house was completely 
overrun^ and after taking up the carpets and discovering the full extent 
of their ravages it was deemed unsafe to replace them. 

Until recently we had made but one attempt to follow out the detailed 
life history. This was in June, 1882, when the beetle seemed to be 
especially numerous, flying into the open windows of the office. A num- 
ber were placed June 20 in a jar with pieces of rag. On June 23 six 
eggs were found to have been deposited, three of which were already 
much shriveled, apparently not fertilized. The color of the eggs was 
white and they were extremely soft and of broad oval shape, with irreg- 
ular striate sculpturing, like the markings on the palm of one's hand. 
No further eggs were deposited and those previously laid did not hatch. 

Quite recently, in the course of his studies of insects injurious to 
stored food, Mr. Chittenden, of this office, has many times met with 
the larva of this species in seeds and other vegetable products in the 
museum of the Department. He has shown that the larva will breed 
successfully from the egg in flour and meal. Incidentally, he observed 



SPECIES INJURIOUS TO WOOLEN GOODS, ETC. 



63 



that the beetles begin to appear in houses in Washington, D. 0., as 
early as the last of April and occur in the greatest numbers during the 
hot spells late in May and early in June. By the middle of June their 
numbers become less. Beginning on May 6, beetles were placed from 
time to time into a jar with woolen cloth. On June 13 certain larvae 
measuring about 1 mm. in length were found. A year from the placing 
of the first beetles in the jar the largest larvae were found to be only 
4.5 mm. long. Isolated full-grown larvae were several times observed 
to pupate, with the result that the pupal stage was found to last from 
six to fifteen days. In Mr. Chittenden's experiments in rearing this 
insect two years were required for its development from egg to beetle. 

REMEDIES. 

Owing to the similarity of habits, the same remedies may be used 
against this insect as against the buffalo carpet beetle. Notwith- 
standing Mrs. French's experience to the contrary, we do not consider 
it as serious a household pest as the other species. 

L. O. H, 

THE CLOTHES MOTHS. 



(Tinea pellionella, et al.) 

The destructive work of the larvae of the small moths commonly 
known as clothes moths, and also as carpet moths, fur moths, etc., in 
woolen fabrics, fur, and similar material, during the warm months of 
summer in the North, 
and in the South at any 
season, is an altogether 
too common experi- 
ence. The preference 
they so often show for 
woolen or fur garments 
gives these insects a 
much more general in- 
terest than is perhaps 
trueof any other house- 
hold pest. Not only 
are they a pest to the 
good housekeeper, but the bachelor, whose interest in domestic mat- 
ters might otherwise remain at a low ebb, knows to his sorrow of 
their abundance in the disastrous results of their presence in his 
wardrobe. 

The little yellowish or buff-colored moths sometimes seen flit- 
ting about rooms, attracted to lamps at night or dislodged from in- 
fested garments, are themselves harmless enough ; in fact their mouth 
parts are rudimentary, and they can not enjoy even the ordinary 




Fig. 25. — Tinea pellionella: a, adult; b, larva; c, larva in case— en- 
larged (froniHiley). 



64 PRINCIPAL HOUSEHOLD INSECTS. 

pleasures of the winged existence of other moths in sampling the nectar 
of flowers. It is, therefore, to the larvse only that the destructive work 
is due. 

The clothes moths all belong to the group of minute Lepidoptera 
known as Tineina, the old Latin name for cloth worms of all sorts, and 
are characterized by very narrow wings, fringed with long hairs. The 
common species of clothes moths have been associated with man from 
the earliest times and are thoroughly cosmopolitan. They are all prob- 
ably of Old World origin, none of them being indigenous to tbe United 
States. That they were well known to the ancients is shown by Job's 
reference to " a garment that is moth eaten," and Pliny has given such 
an accurate description of one of them as to lead to the easy identifica- 
tion of the species. That they were early introduced into the United 
States is shown by Pehr Kalin, the Swedish scientist whom we have 
previously quoted and who seemed to takea keen interest in house pests. 
He reported these Tineids to be abundant in 1748 in Philadelphia, 
then a straggling village, and says that clothes, worsted gloves, and 
other woolen stuffs hung up all summer were often eaten through and 
through by the worms, and furs were so ruined that the hair would 
come off in handfuls. 1 

What led to the first association of these and other household pests 
with man is an interesting problem. In the case of the clothes moths, 
the larvae of all of which can, in case of necessity, still subsist on 
almost any dry animal matter, their early association with man was 
probably in the role of scavengers, and in prehistoric times they proba- 
bly feci on waste animal material about human habitations and on fur 
garments. The fondness they exhibit nowadays for tailor-made suits 
and expensive products of the loom is simply an illustration of then- 
ability to keep pace with man in his development in the matter of 
clothing from the skin garments of savagery to the artistic products 
of the modern tailor and dressmaker. 

Three common destructive species of clothes moths occur in this 
country. Much confusion, however, exists in all the early writings 
on these insects, all three species being inextricably mixed in the 
descriptions and accounts of habits. Collections of these moths were 
submitted some years ago by Professors Fernald and Eiley to Lord 
Walsingham, of Merton Hall, England, the world's authority on 
Tineids, and from the latter's careful diagnosis it is now possible to 
easily separate and recognize the diffent species. 

The common injurious clothes moths are the case-making species 
(Tinea pellionella Linn.), the webbing species or Southern clothes moth 
(Tineola biselliella Hummel), and the gallery species or tapestry moth 
(Trichophaga tapetzella Linn.). 

A few. other species which normally infest animal products may 

1 Kalm's Travels, Vol. I, p. 317. 



ETC. 65 

occasionally also injure woolens, but are not of sufficient importance to 
be here noted. 

The case-making clothes moth (Tinea pellionella Linn.) (fig. 25) is 
the only species which constructs for its protection a true transport- 
able case. It was characterized by Linnaeus and carefully studied by 
Reaumur early in the last century. Its more interesting habits have 
caused it to be often a subject of investigation, and its life history will 
serve to illustrate the habits of all the clothes moths. 

The moth expands about half an inch, or from 10 to 14 mm. Its head 
and forewings are grayish yellow, with indistinct fuscous spots on the 
middle of the wings. The hind wings are white or grayish and silky. 
It is the common species in the North, being widely distributed and 
very destructive. Its larva feeds on woolens, carpets, etc., and is espe- 
cially destructive to furs and feathers. In the North it has but one 
annual generation, the moths appearing from June to August, and, on 
the authority of Professor Fernald, even in rooms kept uniformly 
heated night and day it never occurs in the larval state in winter. In 
the South, however, it appears from January to October, and has two 
or even more broods annually. 

Pliny says of its larva that it "is clad in a jacket, gradually forming 
for itself its own garment, like the snail in its shell, and when this is 
taken from it, it immediately dies; but when its garment has reached its 
proper dimensions it changes into a chrysalis, from which, at the proper 
time, the moth issues." 

The larva is a dull white caterpillar, with the head and the upper 
part of the next segment light brown, and is never seen free from its 
movable case or jacket, the construction of which is its first task. If it 
be necessary for it to change its position, the head and first segment are 
thrust out of the case, leaving the thoracic legs free, with which it 
crawls, dragging its case after it to any suitable situation. With the 
growth of the larva it becomes necessary from time to time to enlarge 
the case both in length and circumference, and this is -accomplished in 
a very interesting way. Without leaving its case the larva makes a 
slit halfway down one side and inserts a triangular gore of new mate- 
rial. A similar insertion is made on the opposite side, and the larva 
reverses itself without leaving the case and makes corresponding slits 
and additions in the other half. The case is lengthened by successive 
additions to either end. Exteriorly the case appears to be a matted 
mass of small particles of wool; interiorly it is lined with soft, whitish 
silk. By transferring the larva from time to time to fabrics of different 
colors the case may be made to assume as varied a pattern as the 
experimenter desires, and will illustrate, in its coloring, the peculiar 
method of making the enlargements and additions described. 

On reaching full growth the larva attaches its case by silken threads 
to the garment or other material upon which it has been feeding, or 
sometimes carries it long distances. In one instance numbers of them 
21470— No. 4 5 



66 



PRINCIPAL HOUSEHOLD INSECTS, 



were noticed to have scaled a 15-foot wall to attach their cases in au 
angle of the cornice of the ceiling. It undergoes its transformations 
to the chrysalis within the larval case, and under normal conditions the 
moth emerges three weeks later, the chrysalis having previously worked 
partly out of the larval case to facilitate the escape of the moth. The 
latter has an irregular flight and can also run rapidly. It has a dis- 
tinct aversion to light and usually promptly conceals itself in garments 
or crevices whenever it is frightened from its resting place. The moths 
are comparatively short lived, not long surviving the deposition of their 
eggs for a new generation of destructive larva?. The eggs are minute, 
not easily visible to the naked eye, and are commonly placed directly 
on the material which is to furnish the larva?- with food. In some cases 
they may be deposited in the crevices of trunks or boxes, through which 
the newly hatched larva? enter. 

Iii working in feathers this insect occasionally causes a felting very 

similar to that produced by the dermestid beetle Atta genus piceus (p. 61). 

The protection afforded by the seclusion of this insect in houses does 

not prevent its having insect ene- 
mies, and at least two hymenop- 
terous parasites have been reared 
in this country from its larval 
cases. These are Hyper acinus 
tinece Riley MS., and Apanteles 
carpatus Say, both reared from 
specimens collected in Michigan. 
The webbing or Southern 
clothes moth (Tineola biselUella 
Hummel) (fig. 26.) is the more 
abundant and injurious species iu 
the latitude of Washington and 
farther north, though in somewhat less 
It presents two annual broods 




Fig 



Tineola biselUella: moth, larva, cocoon 



and empty pupa-skin — enlarged (after Riley) 



southward. It also occurs 
numbers than the preceding species, 
even in the Northern States, the first appearing in June from eggs 
deposited in May, and the second in August and September. It is 
about the size of pellionella. The forewings are, however, uniformly 
pale ocherous, without markings or spots. Its larva feeds on a large 
variety of animal substances — woolens, hair, feathers, furs, and in Eng- 
land it has even been observed to feed on cobwebs in the corners of 
rooms, and in confinement has been successfully reared on this rather 
dainty food substance. The report that it feeds on dried plants in 
herbaria is rather open to question, as its other recorded food materials 
are all of animal origin. 

Frequently this species is a very troublesome pest iu museums, par- 
ticularly in collections of the larger moths. Prof. F. M. Webster, of 
Wooster, Ohio, has had some of his large moths badly riddled by its 
larvae, and Dr. Hagen also records it as feeding on insect collections. 



SPECIES INJURIOUS TO WOOLEN GOODS, ETC. 67 

Dr. Kiley reared it in conjunction with the angoumois grain moth ( Sito- 
troga cerealella) from grain, it being apparent that its larvae had sub- 
sisted on dead specimens of the grain moth. It is very apt to attack 
large Lepidoptera on the spreading board, and has, in fact, been carried 
through several generations on dried specimens of moths. 

Its general animal-feeding habit is further indicated by the interest- 
ing case reported by Dr. J. G. Merrill. U. S. A., who submitted a sample 
can of beef meal which had been rejected as "weevilly." The damage 
proved to be due to the larva? of Tineola biselliella and goes to sub- 
stantiate the theory already advanced that clothes moths were scaven- 
gers in their earliest association with man. 

The larva of this moth constructs no case, but spins a silky or more 
properly cobwebby patli wherever it goes. When full grown it builds 
a cocoon of silk, intermixed with bits of wool, resembling somewhat the 
case of pellionella, but more irregular in outline. Within this it under- 
goes its transformation to the chrysalis, and the moth in emerging- 
leaves its pupal shell projecting 
out of the cocoon, as with the pre- 
ceding species. 

The tapestry moth {Trichophaga 
tapeizella Linn.) (fig. 27) is rare in 
the Ignited States. It is much 
larger than either of the other two 
species, measuring three-fourths 
inch in expanse of wings, and is FlG " ^-^pi^atapetzeiia: adult moth- 

1 ° enlarged (after Riley). 

more striking in coloration. The 

head is white, the basal third of the forewings black, with the exterior 
two-thirds of a creamy white, more or less obscured on the middle with 
gray: the hind wings are pale gray. 

It normally affects rather coarser and heavier cloths than the smaller 
species and is more apt to occur in carpets, horse blankets, and tapes- 
tries than in the finer and thinner woolen fabrics. It also affects felting, 
furs, and skins, and is a common source of damage to the woolen 
upholstering of carriages, being rather more apt to occur in carriage 
houses and barns than indwelling houses. Its larva enters directly into 
the material which it infests, constructing burrows or galleries lined more 
or less completely with silk. Within these galleries it is protected and 
concealed during its larval life, and later undergoes its transformations 
without other protection than that afforded by the gallery. The dam- 
age is due as much or more to its burrowing as to the actual amount of 
the material consumed for food. 

One of the parasites reared from pellionella (Apanteles carpatus Say) 
has also been reared from this species at St. Louis, Mo. 




68 PRINCIPAL HOUSEHOLD INSECTS. 

REMEDIES. 

There is no easy method of preventing- the damage done by clothes 
moths, and to maintain the integrity of woolens or other materials 
which they are likely to attack demands constant vigilance, with fre- 
quent inspection and treatment. In general they are liable to affect 
injuriously only articles which are put away and left undisturbed for 
some little time. Articles in daily -or weekly use, and apartments fre- 
quently aired and swept, or used as living rooms, are not apt to be seri- 
ously affected. Carpets under these conditions are rarely attacked, 
except sometimes around the borders, where the insects are not so much 
disturbed by walking and sweeping. Agitation, such as beating, shak- 
ing or brushing, and exposure to air and sunlight are old remedies and 
still among the best at commaud. Various repellants, such as tobacco, 
camphor, naphthaline cones or balls, and cedar chips or sprigs, have a 
certain value if the garments are not already stocked with eggs or 
larvae. The odors of these repellants are so disagreeable to the parent 
moths that they are not apt to come to deposit their eggs as long as 
the odor is strong. As it weakens the protection decreases, and if the 
eggs or larvae are already present, these odors have no effect on their 
development; while if the moths are inclosed with the stored material 
to be protected by these repellants, so that they can not escape, they 
will of necessity deposit their eggs and the destructive work of the 
larvae will be little, if at all, restricted. After woolens have been given 
a vigorous and thorough treatment and aired and exposed to sunlight, 
however, it is of some advantage in packing them away to inclose with 
them any of the repellants mentioned. Cedar chests and wardrobes 
are of value in proportion to the freedom of the material from infesta- 
tion when stored away 5 but as the odor of the wood is largely lost with 
age, in the course of a few years the protection greatly decreases. 
Furs and garments may also be stored in boxes or trunks which have 
been lined with the heavy tar paper used in buildings. New papering 
should be given to such receptacles every year or two. Similarly, the 
tarred-paper moth bags are of some value, always, however, first sub- 
jecting the materials to the treatment outlined above. 

To protect carpets, clothes, and cloth-covered furniture, furs, etc., 
they should be thoroughly beaten, shaken, brushed, and exposed as 
long as is practicable to the sunlight in early spring, either in April, 
May, or June, depending on the latitude. The brushing of garments is 
a very important consideration, to remove the eggs or young larvae, 
which might escape notice. Such material can then be hung away in 
clothes closets which have been thoroughly cleaned and, if necessary, 
sprayed with benzine about the cracks of the floor and the baseboards. 
If no other protection be given, they should be examined at least once 
a month during summer, brushed, and, if necessary, exposed to the 
sunlight. 



69 

It would be more convenient, however, to so inclose or wrap up such 
material as to prevent the access of the moths to it, after it has once 
been thoroughly treated, and aired. This can be easily effected in the 
case of clothing and furs by wrapping them up tightly in stout paper, 
or inclosing in well-made bags of cotton or linen cloth or strong paper. 
Dr. Howard has adopted a plan which is inexpensive and which he 
has found eminently satisfactory. For a small sum he secured a num- 
ber of the large pasteboard boxes such as tailors use, and in these 
packs away all winter clothing, gumming a strip of wrapping paper 
around the edge, so as to seal up the box completely and leave no 
cracks. These boxes with care will last many years. With 'thorough 
preliminary treatment it will not be necessary to use the tar-impregnated 
paper sacks sold as moth protectors, which may be objectionable on 
account of the odor. 

The method of protection adopted by one of the leading furriers of 
Washington, who also has a large business and experience in storing 
costly furs, etc., is practically the course already outlined. 

Furs, etc., when received are first most thoroughly and vigorously 
beaten with small sticks, to dislodge all loosened hair and the larva? or 
moths. They are then gone over carefully with a steel comb and packed 
away in large boxes lined with heavy tar roofing paper, or in closets 
similarly lined with this paper. An examination is made every two to 
four weeks, and, if necessary at any time, any garment requiring it is 
rebeaten and combed. During many years of experience in this climate, 
which is especially favorable to moth damage, this merchant has pre- 
vented any serious injury from moths. 

A common method of protection followed by larger dealers in carpets 
and furs, etc., is the use of cold storage for protection. In all large 
towns anyone can avail himself of this means by patronizing storage 
companies, and protection will be guaranteed. A temperature main- 
tained at 40° F. is protective, but often a much lower temperature is 
maintained — down to 20° F. 

In the case of cloth-covered furniture and cloth-lined carriages which 
are stored or left unused for considerable periods in summer it will 
probably be necessary to spray them twice or three times, viz, in April, 
June, and August with benzine or naphtha, to protect them from moths. 
These substances can be applied very readily with any small spraying 
device and will not harm the material, but caution must be exercised 
on account of their inflammability. Another means of protecting such 
articles is to sponge them very carefully with a dilute solution of corro- 
sive sublimate in alcohol made just strong enough not to leave a white 
stain. 

C. L. M. 



CHAPTER V. 
SPECIES INJURIOUS TO WALL PAPER, BOOKS, TIMBERS, ETC. 

By C. L. Marlatt. 
THE WHITE ANT. 

(Termes flavipes Koll. ) 

No insect occurring* in houses is capable of doing greater damage 
than the one under consideration. Its injuries are often hidden and 
concealed until the damage is beyond repair, and as it affects the integ- 
rity of the building itself as well as its contents, the importance of the 
insect becomes very evident. Fortunately it is not often present in 
the North in houses, but as the Tropics are approached the injuries 
from it in dwellings or other structures of wood are of common expe- 
rience and often of the most serious nature, causing the sudden crum- 
bling of bridges, wharves, and settling of floors or buildings. 




Fig. 28. — Termes flavipes : a, adult male ; b, terminal abdominal segments of same from below ; c, same 
of female; d. male, side view somewhat inflated by treatment with ammonia; e, abdomen of female, 
side view; /, tarsus, showing joints and claw; a, tf, e, enlarged; b, c,f, greatly enlarged (original). 

The term " white ant," by which this insect is universally known, is 
entirely inappropriate in so far as it indicates any relationship with the 
true ants. Strictly speaking, the white ant is not an ant at all, but 
belongs with the Neuroptera and is allied to the dragon flies and May 
flies. The only analogy with ants is in superficial resemblance and in 
the social habits of the two groups, in which great similarity exists. 
The popular acquaintance with the termite or white ant is mainly 
70 



SPECIES INJURIOUS TO WALL PAPER, BOOKS, ETC. 71 

derived from witnessing its nuptial spring flight, when the small, 
brownish, ant-like creatures with long glistening white wings emerge 
from cracks in the ground or from crevices in buildings, swarming out 
sometimes in enormous numbers, so that they may often be swept up 
by the quart. These winged individuals are not the ones which do the 
damage, however, and are a mere colonizing form. The real depreda- 
tors are soft-bodied, large-headed, milky-white insects, less than a 
quarter of an inch in length, which may often be found in numbers 
under rotting boards or in decaying stumps. These last are the work- 
ers and soldiers (fig. 31, c and d), and constitute the bulk of the colony 
for most of the year, the winged migrating forms, consisting of the 
sexed individuals, appearing normally only once a year, usually in 
spring or early summer. 

The white ants present, in an entirely distinct order of insects, 
another of those most curious problems of communal societies which 
find so many examples among the ants, bees, and wasps. A colony of 
white ants includes workers, soldiers, the young of the various forms, 
and, at the proper season of the year, the winged males and females; 
also a single parent pair, the specially developed king and queen. In 
the case of the common white ant of this country (Termes flavipes), the 
true fully developed queen or mother of the colony and her consort, 
the fully developed king or male, have never been found. The soldiers 
or workers are degraded or undeveloped individuals of both sexes, 
differing in this respect from ants and bees, in which the workers are 
all undeveloped females. 

The economy of the termites is almost exactly analogous to that of 
the ants and bees. The workers attend to all the duties of the colony, 
make the excavations, build the nests, care for the young, and protect 
and minister to the wants of the queen or mother ant. In this they are 
assisted somewhat by the soldiers, whose duty, however, is also pro- 
tective, their enormous development of head and jaws indicating their 
role as the fighters or defenders of the colony. Both the workers and 
soldiers are blind. The colonizing individuals differ from the others in 
being fully developed sexually and in possession of very long wings, 
which normally lie flat over each other, the upper wings concealing the 
lower, and both projecting beyond the abdomen. These wings have a 
very peculiar suture near the base, where they can be readily broken 
off, leaving mere stumps. At the time of the spring flight the winged 
individuals emerge from the colony very rapidly, frequently swarming 
in clouds out of doors, and after a short flight fall to the ground and 
very soon succeed in breaking off their long, clumsy wings at the suture 
referred to. In this swarming or nuptial flight they come out in pairs 
and under favorable conditions each pair might establish a new colony, 
but in point of fact this probably rarely if ever happens. They are 
weak flyers,- clumsy, and not capable of extensive locomotion on foot, 
and are promptly preyed upon and destroyed by many insectivorous 
animals, and rarely indeed do any of the individuals escape. 



72 PRINCIPAL HOUSEHOLD INSECTS. 

Theoretically, if one of these pairs succeeded in finding a decaying 
stump or other suitable condition at hand, they would enter it, and the 
king and queen, being both active, would attend to the wants of the new 
colony and superintend the rearing of the first brood of workers and 
soldiers, which would then assume the laborious duties of the young 
colony. Thereafter the queen, by constant and liberal feeding and 
absolute inaction, would increase immensely, her abdomen becoming 
many thousand times its original size. She would practically lose the 
power of locomotion and become a mere egg-laying machine of enormous 
capacity. Allied species whose habits have been studied in this par- 
ticular indicate an egg-laying rate of 60 per minute, or something like 
80,000 per day. 

In the absence of a queen, however, white ants are able to develop 
from a very young larva or a nymph of what would otherwise become a 
winged female what is known as a supplementary queen, which is never 
winged and never leaves the colony. This supplementary queen (fig. 
31, a) is smaller than the perfect sexed queen, but subserves all the needs 




Fig. 29. — Termes Jlavipes: a, head of winged female viewed from above; &, same from below, with 
mouth parts opened out — greatly enlarged (original). 

of the colony in the matter of egg laying, and is the only parent insect 
so far found in the nests of the common white ant in this country. 
Whether a true queen exists or not is, therefore, open to question ; if 
not, all the individuals which escape in the spring and summer migra- 
tions must perish, and this swarming would, therefore, have to be con- 
sidered a mere survival of a once useful feature in the economy of this 
insect, now no longer, or rarely, of service. 

The normal method of the formation of new colonies is probably by 
the mere divisiou or splitting up of old ones or the carrying of infested 
logs or timbers from one point to another. 

The development of these curious insects is very simple. There is 
scarcely any metamorphosis, the change from the young larva to the 
adult being very gradual and without any marked difference in struc- 
ture. They feed on decaying wood or vegetable material of any sort, 
and are able to carry their excavations into any timbers which are 
moistened, or into furniture, books, or papers stored in rooms which 
are at all moist. Their food is the finely divided material into which 



SPECIES INJURIOUS TO WALL PAPER, BOOKS, ETC. 



73 








f-> 



tliey bore, and from which they seem to be able to extract a certain 
amount of nourishment, sometimes redevouring the same material sev- 
eral times. They are also somewhat cannibalistic, and will devour the 
superfluous members of the colony without compunction, and normally 
consume all dead individuals, cast skins, and other refuse material. They 
may also feed to a certain extent on the liquids produced by the decaying 
vegetable matter in which they live, and perhaps on the fungoid ele- 
ments resulting from such decay. They are capable also of exuding a 
sort of nectar, which is used to feed the young and the royal pair, and 
which they also generously give to each other. 

All except the migrating winged forms are incapable of enduring 
full sunlight, and the soft, delicate bodies of the workers, soldiers, and 
yuong rapidly shrivel when exposed. 
In all their operations, therefore, they 
carefully conceal themselves, and in 
their mining of timbers or books and 
papers the surface is always left intact, 
and whenever it is necessary for them 
to extend their colonies it is only done 
under the protection of covered run- 
ways, which they construct of par- 
ticles of comminuted wood or little 
pellets of excrement. In this way the 
damage which they are doing is often 
entirely hidden, and not until furni- 
ture breaks down or the underpinning 
and timbers of houses or floors yield 
is the injury recognized. The swarming of winged individuals in the 
early summer, if in or about houses, is an indication of their injurious 
presence and warrants an immediate investigation to prevent serious 
damage later on. 

The common termite of America is very widespread, occurring from 
the Atlantic to the Pacific and from Canada southward to the Gulf. 
It has been found on the mountains of Colorado and Washington at a 
height of over 7,000 feet. In jjrairie regions it may often be seen during 
the swarming season issuing from the ground at frequent intervals 
over large pasture tracts, where it must feed on the roots of grass and 
other herbage. It has also been carried to other countries and is a 
common and often very injurious enemy of buildings and libraries 
in Europe. A closely allied and equally injurious European species 
(Termes lucifugus) has also been brought to this country in exchange for 
ours, but compared with our own species is somewhat rare though 
already widely distributed. In this country serious damage to build- 
ings from the white ant has not been of common occurrence, especially 
in the North, except in some notable instances. In Europe our 
species has caused greater damage, and some years ago gained access 
to one of the Imperial hothouses at Vienna, and in spite of all efforts 




(.-'- : - 



Fig. 30.— Termes flavipes: a,' newly-hatched 
larva; b, same from below ; c, egg — all en- 
larged to same scale (original). 



74 



PRINCIPAL HOUSEHOLD INSECTS. 



to save the building it was necessary ultimately to tear it down and 
replace it with an iron structure. In this country instances are on 
record of very serious damage to books and papers. An accumulation 
of books and papers belonging to the State of Illinois was thoroughly 
ruined by their attacks. A school library in South Carolina, which 
had been left closed for the summer, was found on being opened in the 
autumn to be completely eaten out and rendered valueless. In the 
Department of Agriculture an accumulation of records and documents 
stored in a vault which was not thoroughly dry, and allowed to remain 
undisturbed for several years, on examination proved to be thoroughly 




Pig. 31. — Termes flavipes: a, queen; b, 



nymph of winged female; c, worker; d, soldier— all enlarged 
(original). 



mined and ruined by white ants. Humboldt, on the authority of 
Hagen, accounts for the rarity of old books in New Spain by the fre- 
quency of the destructive work of these insects. 

Numerous instances of damage to underpinning of buildings and to 
timbers are also on record. The flooring of one of the largest sections 
of the United States National Museum has, for some years back, been 
annually undermined and weakened by a very large colony of these 
pests which could not be located, and finally the present season the 
authorities solved the problem by replacing the wood floor with one of 
cement. A few years ago it was found necessary to tear down and 



SPECIES INJURIOUS TO WALL PAPER, BOOKS, ETC. 75 

rebuild three frame buildings in Washington in consequence of the 
work of this insidious foe. 

Damage of the sort mentioned has occurred as far north as Boston, 
but, as stated, greatly increases as one approaches the Tropics, where the 
warmth and moisture are especially suited to the development and mul- 
tiplication of these insects. Here houses and furniture are never safe 
from attack. The sudden crumbling into masses of dust of chairs, desks, 
or other furniture, and the mining and destruction of collections of books 
and papers, are matters of common experience, very little hint of the 
damage being given by a surface inspection, even when the interior of 
timbers or boards has been thoroughly eaten out, leaving a mere paper 
shell. While confining their work almost solely to moistened or decay- 
ing timbers or vegetable material of any sort, books, and papers that 
are somewhat moist, they are known to work also i.ii living trees, carry- 
ing their mines through the moist and nearly dead heart wood. In this 
way some valuable trees in Boston were so injured as to make their 
removal necessary. In Florida they are often the cause of great damage 
to orange trees, working around the crowns and in the roots of trees. 
They are sometimes also the occasion of considerable loss in conserva- 
tories, attacking cuttings and the roots of plants. In prairie regions 
also their work must necessarily be of the latter nature. 

The white ant is not confined to country places, but is just as apt to 
occur in the midst of towns, and especially in buildings which are sur- 
rounded by open lawns containing growing trees and flower beds richly 
manured. 

The first means of protection, therefore, consists in surrounding all 
libraries or buildings in which articles of value are stored with clear 
spaces and graveled or asphalted walks. The normal habit of these 
insects of breeding in decaying stumps and partially rotted posts or 
boards immediately suggests the wisdom of the prompt removal of all 
such material which would otherwise facilitate the formation or per- 
petuation of their colonies. Complete dryness in buildings is an impor- 
tant means of rendering them safe from attack, and the presence of 
flying termites at any time in the spring or summer should be followed 
immediately by a prompt investigation to locate the colony and deter- 
mine the possibilities of damage. The point of emergence of winged 
individuals may approximately, though not always, indicate the location 
of the colony, and if it can be got at by the removal of flooring or 
opening the walls, the colony may be destroyed by the removal of the 
decaying or weakened timbers and a thorough drenching with steam, 
hot water, or, preferably, kerosene or some other petroleum oil. The 
destruction of winged individuals as they emerge is of no value what- 
ever,* the colony itself must be reached or future damage will not be 
interfered with in the least. If the colony be inaccessible it may some- 
times be possible to inject into the walls or crevices, from which the 
winged individuals are emerging, kerosene in sufficient quantity to 
reach the main nest, if the conditions be such as to indicate that it may 



76 



PRINCIPAL HOUSEHOLD INSECTS. 



be near by, and by this means most, if not all, of the inmates may be 
killed. In all districts of the South frequent examinations of libraries 
and stored papers should be made. 

The advisability, in regions where the ant is likely to be especially 
destructive, of giving all buildings a stone foundation or imbedding all 
the lower timbers and joists in cement will be at once evident. 

THE SILVER FISH. 

(Lepisma saccharina Linn.) 

This insect is often one of the most troublesome enemies of books, 
papers, card labels in museums, and starched clothing, and occasionally 
stored food substances. Its peculiar fish-like form and scaly, glistening 
body, together with its very rapid movements and active efforts at 

concealment whenever it is uncovered, 
have attached considerable popular in- 
terest to it and have resulted in its 
receiving a number of more or less descrip- 
tive popular names, such as silver fish, 
silver louse, silver witch, sugar fish, etc. 
The species named above is the common 
one in England, but also occurs in this 
country, and, like most other domestic 
insects, is now practically cosmopolitan. 
It has a number of near allies, which 
closely resemble it, both in appearance 
and habits. One of these (Lepisma ( Ther- 
mobia) domestica Pack.) has certain pe- 
culiarities of habit which will be referred 
to later. The peculiar appearance of the 
common silver fish early drew attention 
to it, and a fairly accurate description of 
it, given in a little work published in 
London in 1665 by the Royal Society, is 
interesting enough to reproduce : 

It is a small, silvery, shining worm or moth which I found much conversant among 
books and papers, and is supposed to he that which corrodes and eats holes through 
the leaves and covers. It appears to the naked eye a small, glittering, pearl-colored 
moth, which, upon the removing of hooks and papers in the summer, is often observed 
very nimbly to scud and pack away to some lurking cranny where it may better 
protect itself from any appearing dangers. Its head appears big and blunt, and its 
body tapers from it toward the tail, smaller and smaller, being shaped almost like a 
carret. 1 

On account of its always shunning the light and its ability to run 
very rapidly to places of concealment, it is not often seen and is most 




Fig. 32. — Lepisma saccharina 
enlarged (original). 



adult — 



Micrographia, R. Hooke, London, 1665. 



SPECIES INJURIOUS TO WALL PAPER, BOOKS, ETC. 



it 



difficult to capture, and being clothed with, smooth, glistening scales, it 
will slip from between the fingers and is almost impossible to secure 
without crushing or damaging. It is one of the most serious pests in 
libraries, particularly to the binding of books, and will frequently eat 
off the gold lettering to get at the paste beneath, or, as reported by 
Mr. P. R. Uhler, of Baltimore, often gnaws oft' white slips glued on the 
backs of books. Heavily glazed paper seems very attractive to this 
insect, and it has frequently happened that the labels in museum col- 
lections have been disfigured or destroyed by it, the glazed surface 
having been entirely 
eaten off. In some 
cases books printed on 
heavily sized paper 
will have the surface 
of the leaves a good 
deal scraped, leaving 
only the portions cov- 
ered by the ink. It will 
also eat any starched 
clothing, linen, or cur- 
tains, and has been 
known to do very se- 
rious damage to silks 
which had probably 
been stiffened with 
sizing. Its damage in 
houses, in addition to 
its injury to books, 
consists in causing 
the wall paper to scale 
off by its feeding on 
the starch paste. It 
occasionally gets into 
vegetable drugs or 
similar material left 
undisturbed for long 

periods. It is reported also to eat occasionally into carpets and plush- 
covered furniture, but this is open to question. 

The silver fish belongs to the lowest order of insects — the Thysa- 
nura — is wingless, and of very simple structure. It is a worm like 
insect about one-third of an inch in length, tapering from near the 
head to the extremity of the body. The head carries two prominent 
antennae, and at the tip of the body are three long, bristle-shaped 
appendages, one pointing directly backward and the other two extend- 
ing out at a considerable angle. The entire surface of the body is cov- 
ered with very minute scales like those of a moth. Six legs spring 




Fig. 33. Lepisma domeslica: adult female— enlarged (original) 



78 PRINCIPAL HOUSEHOLD INSECTS. 

from the thorax, and, while not very long, they are powerful and enable 
the insect to run with great rapidity. 

In certain peculiarities of structure, and also in their habits, these 
anomalous insects much remind one of roaches, and their quick, gliding 
movements and flattened bodies greatly heighten this resemblance. 
More striking than all, however, is the remarkable development of the 
coxrc or basal joints of the legs in the silver fish, which finds its counter- 
part in roaches, and, taken in connection with the other features of 
resemblance, seems to point to a very close alliance between the two 
groups, if, indeed, the silver fish are not merely structurally degraded 
forms of roaches and to be properly classed with the Blattid?e. 

The general distribution of the insect about rooms, in bookcases, 
and under wall paper renders the application of insecticides difficult 
and often impracticable. It readily succumbs to pyrethrum, and where- 
everthis can be applied, as on book shelves, it furnishes the best means 
of control. For starched clothing and similar objects liable to be 
injured by it there are no means except frequent handling and airing 
and the destruction by hand of all specimens discovered. Little dam- 
age is liable to occur in houses except in comparatively moist situ- 
ations or where stored objects remain undisturbed for a year or more. 

Another of the common silver fishes of this country, referred to in 
the opening paragraph, has developed a novel habit of frequenting 
ovens and fireplaces, and seemingly revels in an amount of heat which 
would be fatal to most other insects. It disports itself in numbers 
about the openings of ranges and over the hot bricks and metal, mani- 
festing a most surprising immunity from the effects of high tempera- 
ture. This heat-loving or bakehouse species (fig. 33) was described in 
1873 as Lepisma domestica by Packard, who reported it to be common 
about fireplaces at Salem, Mass. This species is also very abundant in 
Washington. What is evidently this same insect has become very com- 
mon, particularly in the last year or two, in England and on the Conti- 
nent, where it manifests the same liking for hot places exhibited by it 
in this country. The habit of this species of congregating in bake- 
houses and dwellings, about fireplaces and ovens, has given rise to the 
common appellation for it in England of " fire-brat." Similar descriptive 
names are applied to them also on the Continent. This species closely 
resembles the common silver fish in size and general appearance, but 
may be readily distinguished from it by the presence on the upper 
surface of dusky markings. It also possesses well-marked structural 
differences, which have led to its late reference to a distinct genus — 
Thermobia. An Italian entomologist, Eovelli, has described this insect 
under the descriptive name furnorum, from its inhabiting ovens, and 
the name of the genus to which it is now assigned by English entomolo- 
gists is also descriptive of its heat loving character. A Dutch ento- 
mologist, Oudemans, reports that he has found it in abundance in all 
bakehouses that he has examined in Amsterdam, where it is well known 
to bakers and has received a number of familiar names. 



79 



THE BOOK-LOUSE. 



(Atropo* divinatoria Fab.) 

This pale, louse-like insect, measuring less than 1 mm. in length, usu- 
ally occurs in houses, though rarely in any numbers, aud is most often 
seen on opening old musty volumes, scampering across the page to con- 
ceal itself elsewhere. From this habit comes its popular name of book- 
louse. It is oue of the smallest of insects, nearly colorless, and almost 
invisible to the unaided eye. except as its active movements attract 
one's- attention. It belongs to the family Psocida\ and is somewhat 
closely allied to the white ants, belonging in the same order. There are 
a number of species of psocids which frequent houses, all popularly 
styled book-lice, and having habits and characteristics very similar to 
the one named above, which is the more common and annoying species. 




Fig 34.— Atropos divinatoria: a. adult from below; h. same from above: /, maxillary palpus 
ilia (. ? ): d. mandible: c, labium — all enlarged (original). 



and maybe taken as the type. All these troublesome house species are 
soft-bodied, wingless, degraded creatures, representing the very lowest 
form of insect life. A great many species, also, live out of doors, many 
of these being winged and somewhat resembling plant-lice. They fre- 
quently occur in numbers on the bark of trees and the walls of buildings, 
and feed on lichens or decaying vegetable matter. The Psocida* are 
biting insects, having well-developed mandibles and other mouth parts. 
One of the most interesting features in connection with the common 
house species, and from which it takes sometimes the name "death- 
watch," is the reputation it has of making a ticking sound, supposed to 
prognosticate dire consequences to some inmate of the house. That it 
can make some such noise, probably by striking its head against some 
hard object, seems to be pretty well established in spite of the seeming 



80 PRINCIPAL HOUSEHOLD INSECTS. 

impossibility of an audible sound being produced in this way by so 
small an insect. This psocid is not, however, the true deathwatch. 
This doubtful honor is shared by a near ally, also a psocid, and having 
similar habits [Clothilla pulsatoria), and certain wood-boring beetles, 
which frequently work in the timbers of houses. 

The house species, and particularly the one named at the head of 
this chapter, are widely distributed, almost cosmopolitan, and are 
occasionally the source of very considerable annoyance and damage. 
Throughout the warm season they may be frequently seen in cupboards, 
on window ledges, or library shelves, especially among books or papers 
which are seldom used. They are practically omnivorous, feeding on~ 
any animal or vegetable matter, and are especially fond of the starchy 
paste used in book bindings or for attaching wall paper. They also 
feed on flour, meal, and otlier farinaceous substances, and are frequently 
very destructive to collections of natural history objects. 

Under ordinary circumstances these insects are not especially injuri- 
ous in dwelling houses, and it is only where the materials which they 
are capable of injuring or in which they will breed are left undisturbed 
for long periods that they are apt to multiply and cause any serious 
damage. Occasionally, however, they will multiply in excessive num- 
bers in some available food supply and swarm over the house, to the 
great consternation of the housekeeper. In cases of such extraordi- 
nary multiplication, so difficult are they to reach in the many recesses 
in which they can conceal themselves that the most persistent and 
thorough cleansing and fumigating are scarcely of any avail. For- 
tunately, such instances of excessive multiplication are rare, but 
there are several notable cases on record. The straw or husk fillings 
of mattresses or beds seem to be especially favorable locations for their 
multiplication, and in the worst cases of infestation the psocids have 
come from such sources. Small species of psocids are often extraor- 
dinarily abundant in straw in barns and stables, and Dr. Lintner 
quotes Mr. McLachlan, of London, England, as having found myriads 
of the species under discussion in the straw coverings of wine bottles. 

Mr, Alfred C. Stokes, Trenton, K J. (Insect Life, Vol. I, p. 144), 
reports a case which may be taken as a sample of several recorded 
instances of a similar nature. He says that in a new house kept by 
very neat occupants a mattress of hair and corn husks which had been 
purchased some six months before was found in September, after the 
house had been closed about six weeks, to be so covered with these 
insects that " a pin point could not have been put down without touch- 
ing one or more of the bugs." The side of the lower sheet next the 
mattress was likewise covered, and further search showed the walls and 
in fact the entire house to be swarming with them. A sweep of the 
hand over the walls would gather them by thousands; bureau drawers 
were swarming with them, and they were under every object and in 
everything. The mattress was found to contain millions of them and 



SPECIES INJURIOUS TO WALL PAPER, BOOKS, ETC. 81 

seemed to be the source of supply. The measures taken were most 
thorough. The mattress was promptly removed ; walls and floors were 
washed with borax and corrosive sublimate solution; carpets were 
steam cleaned; pyrethrum was freely used; furniture was beaten, 
cleaned, and varnished, the struggle being kept up for a year with all 
the persistence of an extraordinarily neat housekeeper. The insect 
continued to have the best of it, however, and persisted, though in 
diminished numbers. 

The family then removed to a hotel and for days the house was fumi- 
gated with burning sulphur and the scrubbing was repeated. The 
insect was still not entirely exterminated and the house was vacated 
again and subjected to the vapor of benzine. The insects, two years 
after the removal of the mattress, were reported to be still in the house, 
greatly reduced, but to be found in dark corners. 

An almost exact duplication of this experience is reported by Dr. 
J. A. Lintner (Second Beport, p. 198) as occurring in a residence in 
Otsego County, K. Y., the infestation coming originally from straw- 
filled ticks. 

In aggravated cases of the kind noted nothing but the most thorough 
steps will be of avail. The source of supply, if in straw or husk ticks, 
should be promptly removed and the contents of the ticks or mattresses 
burned. 

Carpets and bedding should be steam cleaned and floors should be 
thoroughly washed with soapsuds and the Avails washed and repapered 
or painted. Benzine or gasoline should be applied freely to all possible 
retreats or to furniture which can not be otherwise cleaned. Thorough 
fumigation with brimstone, as recommended for the bedbug (see p. 38), 
or like fumigation with bisulphide of carbon, will destroy many of the 
psocids if the room can be tightly closed for several hours. 

There is no means of preventing the occasional occurrence of psocids 
in houses, but unless exceptional opportunities are furnished they will 
rarely be troublesome, and occasional examinations of book shelves or 
other locations where they are apt to appear, with a liberal dusting of 
pyrethrum powder whenever necessary, will ordinarily keep them in 
check. With plenty of air and light and in apartments in daily use 
they rarely appear in any numbers. The use of straw or husk filled 
ticks or mattresses would seem inadvisable or at least should be discon- 
tinued at the first indication of being at all subject to infestation. 

THE AMERICAN SPRING-TAIL. 

(Lepidocyrtus americaniis Marlatt.) 

This very anomalous little insect, measuring scarcely more than one- 
tenth of an inch, silvery gray in color, with purple or violet markings, 
may be frequently observed in houses in situations similar to those fre- 
quented by the two species last described. In common with the silver 
21470— No. 4 6 



82 



PRINCIPAL HOUSEHOLD INSECTS. 



fish, it belongs to the order of insects known as Aptera (wingless), from 
the fact of their having no vestige of wings throughout life. 

The simple structure of these insects, and particularly their resem- 
blance to the larval state of winged insects, has led to the belief that 
they are the primitive forms of insect life. That this is true is, however, 
by no means certain, and they may rather be degraded or debased 
examples of some of the higher orders of insects. The species figured 
herewith is not infrequently found in dwellings in Washington, but is 
apparently undescribed, and, in fact, little is known of the American 
species. It is, however, closely allied to a European form (L. cervicalis), 
often found in cellars, and figured by Sir John Lubbock in his mono- 
graph on these insects (PI. XXV). Another allied European species 
(Seira domestica) has been named from the fact of its being a frequenter 
of houses. 





FlG. 35.— Spring-tail (Lepidocyrtus americanus) 
view from above (original). 



Fig. 36. — Spring-tail (Lepidocyrtus americanus) 
view from beneath (original) . 



These insects belong to the suborder Collembola, which (following- 
Sharp) is distinguished from the other suborder of Aptera, Thysanura, 
by having but five body segments instead of ten, and possessing a 
very peculiar ventral tube on the first segment, and commonly also a 
terminal spring, by means of which these creatures leap with great 
agility, and from which they take their common name of "spring-tails." 

These insects, though very abundant, have been very little studied, 
and little is # known of their life habits. They often multiply in extraor- 
dinary numbers, especially in moist situations, swarming on tbe sur- 
face of stagnant water or on wet soil. They seem to be very tolerant 
of cold, and we have interesting accounts of the occurrence of a spe- 
cies related to the one figured in the Arctic regions on melting snow 
fields and on glaciers, where they are known as "snow fleas" or " snow 
worms.' 1 Other interesting forms occur in caves, and in the Mammoth 
Cave in Kentucky they are notably abundant. In houses they may 
often be found on window sills, in bathrooms, and sometimes, under 



SPECIES INJURIOUS TO WALL PAPER, BOOKS, ETC. 



83 




favorable situations, in very considerable numbers. Especially are 
they apt to occur where there are window plants or in small conserva- 
tories, but are not confined to these situations. Yery little is known of 
their food habits, but they are supposed to subsist on refuse or chiefly 
decaying vegetable matter. 

The striking peculiarities of these insects are in the remarkable 
ventral tube and the strong saltatorial appendage of the extremity 
of the body. The 
first arises from 
the forward body 
segment, and 
seems to act in 
this species as a 
sort of a retainer 
for the leaping 
organ, or spring 
proper, as shown 
in fig. 36. It is 
said to secrete a 
viscid fluid,which 
enables the insect 
to better adhere 
to smooth vertical 

surfaces. The so-called " catch,"' or retainer proper, is shown in a small 
projection between the hind pair of legs and the spring (fig. 37), and 
grasps the latter near the middle. The springing organ is two-jointed, 
the last joint being bifurcate, and its terminals inclosing the ventral 
tube. It is shown in normal position in fig. 36, and as it appears when 
leaping in fig. 37, a. 

These insects can not survive dryness, and, while they will not often 
occur in sufficient numbers to be particularly objectionable, the removal 
of the moist objects or surfaces on which they congregate and the 
maintenance of dry conditions will cause them to soon disappear. 

A correspondent reports that, having been troubled by these or allied 
insects for years in cellars and pantries, relief was finally obtained by 
giving the shelves, cupboards, and walls a thorough coating of white- 
wash inside and out. The pests abandoned the premises and were no 
longer troublesome. This remedy will be worth trying, especially in 
cellars and basement rooms, where there is likelihood of dampness and 
consequent abundance of these insects. 



Fig. 37. — Spring-tail (Lepklocyrtus americanus) : a, lateral view of fe- 
male; b, foot of same; c, tip of spring-tail ; d, body scale; e, upper lip 
or labium ; /, mandible or jaws ; g, lower jaws and lower lip or maxillse 
and labium — (original). 



CHAPTER VI. 

COCKROACHES AND HOUSE ANTS, 

By C. L. Marlatt. 

COCKROACHES. 

(Periplaneia americana et al.) 

Roaches are among tlie commonest and most offensive of the insects 
which frequent human habitations. They were well known to the 
ancients, who called them lucifuga, from their habit of always shunning 
the light. The common English name for them, or, more properly, for 
the common domestic English species, is "black beetle." In America 
this name has not been adopted to any extent for this insect, which was 




Fig. 38. — The American roach (Periplaneta americana): a, view from ahove; b, from heneath— hoth 

enlarged one-third (original). 

early introduced here, and the term " roach,'' or "cockroach," is the 
common appellation of all the domestic species. The little German 
roach, however, is very generally known as the Oroton bug, from its 
early association with the Oroton waterworks system in New York City. 
The popular designations of this insect in Germany illustrate in an 
84 



COCKROACHES AND HOUSE ANTS. 85 

amusing way both sectional and racial prejudices. In north Germany 
these roaches are known as "Schwaben," a name which applies to the 
inhabitants of south Germany, and the latter section " even up" by call- 
ing them " Preussen." after the north Germans. In east Germany they 
are called "Russen,''and in west Germany "Franzosen," the two latter 
appellations indicating a certain national antipathy to rival countries 
as well as a fanciful idea as to origin. Still other names are "Spanier," 
dating from the time of Charles Y, and tk Dane, " from Denmark. 

DISTRIBUTION AND HISTORY. 

The roaches belong to a very extensive family, the Blattidae, com- 
paratively few of which, fortunately, have become domesticated. In 
temperate countries some four or five species are Very common house- 
hold pests, and a few occur wild in woods; but they are essentially 
inhabitants of warm countries, and in the Tropics the house species are 
very numerous, and the wild species occur in great number and variety, 
many of them being striking in shape, coloration, and size, one species 
expanding more than 6 inches. The inability of the domestic roaches 
to withstand unusual cold was illustrated by the fact that the severe 
weather in the winter of 1894 in Florida, which was so destructive to 
the citrus groves, on the authority of Mr. H. G. Hubbard, destroyed 
all the roaches, even those in houses, except a few unusually well pro- 
tected. Under suitable conditions in the more northern latitude the 
domestic species often multiply prodigiously, and even in the far north 
a species occurs in the huts of the Laplanders, and sometimes entirely 
devours the stores of dried fish put away for winter consumption. 

While the domestic species are few in number, nearly a thousand 
species of Blattidas have been described and preserved in collections, 
and it is estimated that perhaps upward of 5,000 species occur at the 
present time in different parts of the world. The great majority of the 
roaches live out of doors, subsisting on living vegetation, and occasion- 
ally in warm countries are very injurious to cultivated plants. 

The roach is one of the most primitive and ancient insects, in the 
sense of its early appearance on the globe, fossil remains of roaches 
occurring in abundance in the early coal formations, ages before the 
more common forms of insect life of the present day had begun to 
appear. The species now existing are few in number in comparison 
with the abundance of forms in the Carboniferous age, which might 
with propriety be called the age of cockroaches, the moisture and 
warmth of that distant period being alike favorable to plant growth 
and the multiplication of this family of insects. 

The house roaches of today were undoubtedly very early associated 
with man in his primitive dwellings, and through- the agency of com- 
merce have followed him wherever navigation has extendei. In fact, 
on shipboard they are always especially numerous and troublesome, 
the moisture and heat of the vessels being particularly favorable to 



86 PEINCIPAL HOUSEHOLD INSECTS. 

their development. It is supposed that the common oriental cockroach 
or so-called "black beetle" of Europe (Periplayieta orientalis) is of 
Asiatic origin, and it is thought to have been introduced into Europe 
in the last two or three hundred years. The original home of this and 
the other common European species (Ectobia germanica) is, however, 
obscure, and in point of fact they have probably both been associated 
with man from the earliest times, and naturally would come into the 
newly settled portions of Europe from the older civilizations of Asia 
and Egypt. 

Of the other two domestic species especially considered in this paper 
the Australian roach (P. australasice), as its name implies, is a native of 
Australia, and the American roach (P. americana) of tropical America. 

Rarely do two of the domestic species occur in any numbers together 
in the same house. Often also of two neighboring districts one may be 
infested with one species, while in the other a distinct species is the 
commoner one. The different species are thus seemingly somewhat 
antagonistic, and it is even supposed that they may prey upon each 
other, the less numerous species being often driven out. 

STRUCTURAL CHARACTERISTICS. 

Although among the oldest insects geologically, roaches have not 
departed notably from the early types, and form one of the most persist- 
ent groups among insects. The house species are rather uniformly dark 
brown or dark colored, a coloration which corresponds with their habit 
of concealment during daylight. They are smooth and slippery insects, 
and in shape broad and flattened. The head is in flexed under the body, 
so that the mouth parts are directed backward and the eyes directed 
downward, conforming with their groveling habits. The antennae are 
very long and slender, often having upward of 100 joints. The males 
usually have two pairs of wings, the outer ones somewhat coriaceous and 
the inner ones more membranous and once folded longitudinally. In 
some species, as, for instance, the black beetle, the females are nearly 
wingless. The legs are long and powerful and armed with numerous 
strong bristles or spines. The mouth parts are well developed and with 
strong biting jaws, enabling them to eat all sorts of substances. 

HABITS AND LIFE HISTORY. 

In houses roaches are particularly abundant in pantries and kitchens, 
especially in the neighborhood of fireplaces, on account of the heat. 
For the same reason they are often abundant in the oven rooms of 
bakeries or wherever the temperature is maintained above the normal. 
They conceal themselves during the day behind baseboards, furniture, 
or wherever security and partial protection from the light are afforded. 
Their very flat, thin bodies enable them to squeeze themselves into 
small cracks or spaces where their presence would not be suspected 
and where they are out of the reach of enemies. Unless routed out by 



COCKROACHES AND HOUSE ANTS. 87 

the moving of furniture or disturbed in their hiding places, they are 
rarely seen, and if so uncovered, make off with wonderful celerity, with 
a scurrying, nervous gait, and usually are able to elude all efforts at 
their capture or destruction. It may often happen that their presence, 
at least in the abundance in which they occur, is hardly realized by 
the housekeeper, unless they are surprised in their midnight feasts. 
Coming into a kitchen or pantry suddenly, a sound of the rustling of 
numerous objects will come to the ear, and if a light be introduced, 
often the floor or shelves will be seen covered with scurrying roaches 
hastening to places of concealment. In districts where the large 
American roach occurs they sometimes swarm in this way at night in 
such numbers that upon entering a small room in which they are con- 
gregated one will be repeatedly struck and scratched on the face and 
hands by the insects in their frantic flight to gain concealment. 

The black roach is less active and wary than the others, and particu- 
larly the German roach, which is especially agile and shy. 

The domestic roaches are practically omnivorous, feeding on almost 
any dead animal matter, cereal products, and food materials of all sorts. 
They are also said to eat their own cast skins and egg cases, and it is 
supposed that they will attack other species of roaches, or are, perhaps, 
occasionally cannibalistic. They will also eat or gnaw woolens, leather 
(as of shoes or furniture), and frequently are the cause of extensive 
damage to the cloth and leather bindings of books in libraries and 
publishing houses. The sizing or paste used on the cloth covers and in 
the binding of books seems to be very attractive. The surface of the 
covers of cloth-bound books is often much scraped and disfigured, par- 
ticularly by the German cockroach {EctoMa germanica), and the gold 
lettering is sometimes eaten off to get at the albumen paste. On ship- 
board the damage is often very extensive, on account of the vast num- 
bers of cockroaches which frequently occur there, and we have reliable 
accounts of entire supplies of ship biscuits having been eaten up or 
ruined by roaches. 

The damage they do is not only in the products actually consumed, 
but in the soiling and rendering nauseous of everything with which 
they come in contact. They leave, wherever they occur in any num- 
bers, a fetid, nauseous odor, well known as the "roachy" odor, which 
is persistent and can not be removed from shelves and dishes without 
washing with soap and boiling water. Food supplies so tainted are 
beyond redemption. This odor comes partly from their excrement, but 
chiefly from a dark colored fluid exuded from the mouth of the insect, 
with which it stains its runways, and also in part, doubtless, from the 
scent glands, which occur on the bodies of both sexes between certain 
segments of the abdomen, and which secrete an oily liquid possessing 
a very characteristic and disagreeable odor. It frequently happens 
that shelves on which dishes are placed become impregnated with this 
roachy odor, and this is imparted to and retained by dishes to such an 
extent that everything served in them, particularly liquids, as coffee or 



88 PRINCIPAL HOUSEHOLD INSECTS. 

tea, will be noticed to have a peculiar, disgusting, foreign taste and 
odor, the source of which may be a puzzle and will naturally be sup- 
posed to come from the food rather than from the dish. 

The roaches are normally scavengers in habit and may at times be of 
actual service in this direction by eating up and removing any dead 
animal material. 

One other redeeming trait has been recorded of them, namely, that 
they will prey upon that other grievous pest of houses which are not 
subjected to careful supervision, the bedbug. Their habits in this direc- 
tion have been recorded several times. One writer, in a narrative of a 
voyage (Foster's Yoyage, Yol. I, p. 373), makes the following statement 
in this connection: 

Cockroaches, those nuisances to ships, are plentiful at St. Helena, and yet, bad as 
they are, they are more endurable thau bugs. Previous to our arrival here in the 
Chanticleer, we had suffered great inconvenience from the latter, but the cockroaches 
no sooner made their appearance than the bugs entirely disappeared. The fact is 
that the cockroach preys upon them and leaves no sign or vestige of where they have 
been. So that it is a most valuable insect. 1 

The cockroach is, however, far too much of a nuisance itself to war- 
rant its being recommended as a means of eradicating even the much 
more disagreeable insect referred to. 2 

The local spread of roaches from house to house is undoubtedly 
often effected by their being introduced with supplies, furniture, goods, 
etc. That the Groton bug, or German roach, and probably the other 
species also, may develop a migratory instinct has been witnessed by 
Dr. Howard and the writer in Washington. (See Insect Life, Yol. 
YII, p. 349.) 

This very interesting instance of what seems to have been a true 
migration, in which an army of thousands of roaches by one common 
impulse abandoned their old quarters and started on a search for a more 
favorable location, illustrates, as pointed out by Dr. Howard, what is 
probably of frequent occurrence under the cover of darkness, and 
accounts for the way in which new houses frequently become suddenly 
overrun with these vermin. 

iProc. Ent. Soc. Lond. 7 1855, N. S. 3, p. 77. 

2 The following interesting letter from Mr. Herbert H. Smith, the collector and 
naturalist, gives a vivid picture of the roach nuisance in the Tropics: 

/'Cockroaches are so common in Brazilian country houses that nobody pays any 
attention to them. They have an unpleasant way of getting into provision boxes, 
and they deface books, shoes, and sometimes clothing. Where wall paper is used, 
they soon eat it off in unsightly patches, no doubt seeking the paste beneath. But at 
Corumba, on the upper Paraguay, I came across the cockroach in a new role. In the 
house where we were staying there were nearly a dozen children, and every one of 
them had their eyelashes more or less eaten off by cockroaches — a large brown spe- 
cies, one of the commonest kind throughout Brazil. The eyelashes were bitten off 
irregularly, in some places quite close to the lid. Like most Brazilians, these chil- 
dren had very long, black eyelashes, and their appearance thus defaced was odd 
enough. The trouble was confined to children, I suppose because they are heavy 
sleepers and do not disturb the insects at work. My wife and I sometimes brushed 
cockroaches from our faces at night, but thought nothing more of the matter. The 
roaches also bite off bits of the toe nails. Brazilians very properly encourage the 
large house spiders, because they tend to rid the house of other insect pests.'' 



COCKROACHES AND HOUSE ANTS. 89 



LIFE HISTORY. 

The roach iu its different stages from egg to adult shows coinpara 
tively little variation in appearance or habits. The young are very 
much like the adult, except in point of size and in lacking wings, if 
the latter be winged in the adult state. In their mode of oviposition 
they present, however, a very anomalous and peculiar habit. The eggs, 
instead of being deposited separately, as with most other insects, are 
brought together within the abdomen of the mother into a hard, horny 
pod or capsule which often nearly fills the body of the parent. This 
capsule contains a considerable number of eggs, the number varying 
hi the different species, arranged in two rows, the position of the eggs 
being indicated on the exterior of the capsule by transverse lateral 
impressions. When fully formed and 

charged with eggs the capsule is often JPffi ffiUBi /rrrrrnv fl 
partly extruded from the female abdomen ffl[ B^ - / lm 

and retained in this position sometimes V L/\ I 

for weeks, or until the young larvae are ^"^^ ^^ ^^8/ 

ready to emerge. The capsule is oval, FlG . 3 9._Eg g -capsuie of krtpiamta 

elongate, Or SOmewhat bean Shaped, and americana: a, side; b, end view-nat- 
n •.'"'■■ i • -n , mi ural size indicated hv outline figure 

one of its edges is usually serrate. The (original). 
young are in some instances assisted to 

escape by the parent, who with her feet aids in splitting the capsule 
on the serrate edge to facilitate their exit. On hatching, it is said, the 
young are often kept together by the parent and brooded over and 
cared for, and at least a colony of young will usually be found associated 
with one or two older individuals. These insects are more or less gre- 
garious, notably so iu the case of the black beetle of Europe and to a 
less extent with the German and American roaches. 

They pass through a variable number of molts, sometimes as many 
as seven, the skin splitting along the back and the insects coming out 
white, soft, but rapidly hardening and assuming the normal color. 
Some astounding statements have been made as to the length of time 
required for the development of the roach from the egg to the adult. 
Four or five years have been said to be necessary for an individual to 
reach full growth; but more recent breeding experiments have not 
altogether confirmed these statements. Their development, however, 
is unquestionably slow, and probably under the most favorable condi- 
tions rarely is more than one generation per year produced. In colder 
countries the breeding and growth are practically restricted to the 
warm season. During the winter months they go into concealment 
and partial hibernation. Ectobia germanica has been shown to reach 
full growth in a variable period from four and a half to six months 
(Hummel, Essais Entomologiques, No. 1, St. Petersburg, 1821). The 
common American roach (Periplaneta americana) has been carried from 
the egg to the adult state in our insectary. Young hatching July 11 



90 PRINCIPAL HOUSEHOLD INSECTS. 

from an egg case received from Eagle Pass, Tex., reached the adult 
stage between Marcli 14 and June 12 of the following year, indicating 
a period of nearly twelve months for complete development. The rate 
of growth of the roach undoubtedly depends very largely on food and 
temperature, and under unfavorable conditions the time required for 
development may undoubtedly be vastly lengthened. The abundance 
of roaches is, therefore, apparently not accounted for so much by their 
rapidity of multiplication as by their unusual ability to preserve 
themselves from ordinary means of destruction and by the scarcity of 
natural enemips. 

THE COMMON DOMESTIC ROACHES. 

The four roaches which have been made the subject of illustrations 
represent the species which occur most commonly in houses, bakeries, 
or on shipboard. The numerous tropical house species, many of which 
are perhaps only partially domesticated, and the subarctic roach of high 
altitudes and of the extreme north have been omitted. 

The American roach (Periplaneta americana) (fig. 38) is the native or 
indigenous species of this continent, originating, it is supposed, in trop- 
ical or subtropical America. 

The ancient and rather quaint account of this insect 1 quoted below 
in a footnote indicates that this species early came to the notice 
of our forefathers. Its domesticity doubtless resulted from ages of 
association with the aborigines. It has now become thoroughly cosmo- 
politan, and is unquestionably the most injurious and annoying of the 
species occurring on vessels. It is sometimes numerous also in green- 
houses, causing considerable injury to tender plants. It is a notorious 
house pest and occasionally vies with the German roach in its injuries 
to book bindings. One of the most serious cases of injury of this sort 
was reported by the Treasury Department. The backs, sometimes 
entirely, of both cloth and leather bound books were eaten off to get 
at the starchy paste used in the binding. (Insect Life, Vol. I, p. 67-70.) 

It is very abundant in the Middle and Western States, where it has 
been until recently practically the only troublesome house species. In 
the East it is not often so common as are one or other of the following 
species and especially germanica. In foreign countries it has not become 
widespread and is largely confined to seaport towns. In size it is 

1 The cockroach. — These are very troublesome and destructive vermin, and are so 
numerous and voracious, that it is impossible to keep Victuals of any kind from 
being devoured by them, without close covering. They are flat, and so thin that 
few chests or boxes can exclude them. They eat not only leather, parchment and 
woollen, but linen and paper. They disappear in Winter, and appear most numer- 
ous in the hottest days in Summer. It is at night they commit their depredations, 
and bite people in their beds, especially children's fingers that are greasy. They lay 
innumerable eggs, creeping into the holes of old walls and rubbish, where they 
lie torpid all the Winter. Some have wings, and others are without — perhaps of 
different Sexes. TCatesby : Nat. Hist. Carolina, 1748, Vol. II, p. 10.) 



COCKROACHES AND HOUSE ANTS. 



91 



larger than any of the other domestic species, and it is light brown in 
color, the wings being unusually long, powerful, and well developed 
in both sexes. 

The Australian roach {Periplaneta australasice) resembles very closely 
the last species, but differs strikingly in the brighter and more defi- 
nitely limited yellow band on the prothorax and in the yellow dash on 
the sides of the upper wings (see fig. 40). In the United States it is 
the most abundant and troublesome species in Florida and some of the 
other Southern States. It is already practically cosmopolitan. 




FlG. 40. — The Australian roach. (Periplaneta australasice): a, male with spread 
wings: b, female; c, pupa — all life-size (original). 



The oriental cockroach, or black beetle {Periplaneta orientalis), is the 
common European and particularly the English species, and is notable 
for the fact that the female is nearly wingless in the adult state. The 
wings of the male also are shortened, not reaching to the extremity of the 
body. In color it is very dark brown, almost black, shining, and rather 
robust, much stouter than the other species, making its English name 
of "black beetle" quite appropriate. This species is notably gregarious 
in habit, individuals living together in colonies in the most amicable 
way, the small ones being allowed by the larger ones to sit on them, 
run over them, and nestle beneath them without any resentment being- 
shown. This species was a common and troublesome pest in the British 



92 



PRINCIPAL HOUSEHOLD INSECTS. 




colonies early in the eighteenth century, although unknown at the same 
time in the French Canadian possessions. 1 

It then seemed to be commonly known as the mill beetle. The 
early Dutch called them Kakerlach, and in the Swede settlements they 

were known as Brodoetare 
.? ^\ ^ 1>- — ^ (bread eaters). It is now 

very common in houses in 
the East, but is quite gener- 
ally distributed, and is the 
common species even so far 
removed from the Atlantic 
seaboard as New Mexico. 
The characteristics of this 
insect are shown in the 
accompanying illustration 
(fig. 41). ' 

The German cockroach, 
Ectob'm ( Phyllodromia) ger- 
manica, is particularly 
abundant in Germany and 
neighboring European 
countries, but, like most of 
the other domestic species, 
has become world-wide in distribution. In this country it is very often 
styled the Groton bug, this designation coming from the fact, already 
alluded to, that attention was first prominently drawn to it at the time 
of the completion of the Croton system of waterworks in New York 
Gity. It had 
probably been 
introduced long 
previously, but 
the extension of 
the waterworks 
system and of 
piping afforded it 
means of ingress 
into residences, 
and greatly en- 
couraged its 
spread and facili- 
tated its multi- 
plication. The dampness of water pipes is favorable to it, and it may 
be carried by the pressure of the water long distances through the 
pipes without injury. This roach has so multiplied in the eastern 
United States that it has now become the commonest and best known 



Fig. 41. — The oriental roach (Periplaneta orientdlis): a, 
female; b, male; c, side view of female; d, half-grown 
specimen — all natural size (original). 




Fig. 42.— The German roach (Ectobia germanica) : a, first stage ; b, second 
stage ; c, third stage ; d, fourth stage ; e, adult ; /, adult female with egg- 
case; g, egg-case — enlarged; h, adult with Avings spread — all natural size 
except g. (From Riley.) 



See Kalm's Travels, Vol. I, p. 321; II, p, 256. 



COCKROACHES AND HOUSE ANTS. 93 

of the domestic species, and its injuries to food products, books, etc., 
and the disgusting results of its presence in pantries, storehouses, and 
bakeries, give it really a greater economic importance than any of the 
other species. 

It is very light brown in color, and characteristically marked on the 
thorax with two dark-brown stripes. It is more active and wary than 
the larger species and much more difficult to eradicate. It is the 
smallest of the domestic species, rarely exceeding five-eighths of an 
inch in length, and multiplies much more rapidly than the others, the 
breeding period being shorter and the number of eggs in the capsules 
greater than with the larger roaches. The injuries effected by it to 
cloth-bound reports have been the source of very considerable annoy- 
ance at the Department of Agriculture and in the large libraries of 
Eastern towns and colleges. The characteristics of the different stages, 
from the egg to the adult, are shown in the illustration (fig. 42). 

REMEDIES. 

Like the crows among birds, the roaches among insects are appar- 
ently unusually well endowed with the ability to guard themselves 
against enemies, displaying great intelligence in keeping out of the 
way of the irate housekeeper and in avoiding food or other substances 
which have been doctored with poisons for their benefit. Their keen- 
ness in this direction is unquestionably the inheritance of many cen- 
turies during which the hand of man has ever been raised against 
them. 

The means against these insects, including always vigilance and 
cleanliness as important preventives, are three, namely, destruction by 
poisons, by fumigation with poisonous gases, and by trapping. 

Poisons. — As just noted, roaches often seem to display a knowledge 
of the presence of poisons in food, and, notwithstanding their practi- 
cally omnivorous habits, a very little arsenic in baits seems to be 
readily detected by them. In attempting to eradicate roaches from 
the Department storerooms where cloth-bound books are kept various 
paste mixtures containing arsenic were tried, but the roaches inva- 
riably refused to feed on them in the least. This applies particularly 
to the German roach, or Oroton bug, and may not hold so strongly 
with the less wary and perhaps less intelligent larger roaches. 

A common remedy suggested for roaches consists in the liberal use of 
pyrethrum powder or buhach, and when this is persisted in consider- 
able relief will be gained. It is not a perfect remedy, however, and is 
at best but a temporary expedient, while it has the additional disad- 
vantage of soiling the shelves or other objects over which it is dusted. 
When used it should be fresh and liberally applied. Eoaches are often 
paralyzed by it when not killed outright, and the morning after an 
application the infested premises should be gone over and all the dead 
or partially paralyzed roaches swept up and burned. 



94 PRINCIPAL HOUSEHOLD INSECTS. 

There are many proprietary substances which claim to be fairly 
effective roach poisons. The usefulness of most of these is, however, 
very problematical, and disappointment will ordinarily follow their 
application. The only one of these that has given very satisfactory 
results is a phosphorous paste, also sold in the form of pills. It prob- 
ably consists of sweetened flour paste containing phosphorus, and is 
spread on bits of paper or cardboard and placed in the runways of the 
roaches. It has been used very successfully in the Department to free 
desks from Croton bugs, numbers of the dead insects being found in the 
drawers every day during the time the poison was kept about. 

Fumigation. — Wherever roaches infest small rooms or apartments 
which may be sealed up nearly air-tight, and also on shipboard, the 
roach nuisance can be greatly abated by the proper use of poisonous 
gases, notably bisulphide of carbon. This substance, distributed about 
a pantry or room in open vessels, will evaporate, and, if used in suffi- 
cient quantity, will destroy roaches. Unless the room can be very 
tightly sealed up, however, the vapor dissipates so rapidly that its 
effect will be lost before the roaches are killed. The hatches of ships, 
especially of smaller coasting vessels, may be battened down, a very 
liberal application of bisulphide of carbon having been previously made 
throughout the interior. If left for twenty-four hours the roaches and 
all other vermin will unquestionably have been destroyed. In the use 
of this substance it must be always borne in mind that it is violently 
explosive in the presence of fire, and every possible precaution should 
be taken to see that no fire is in or about the premises during the treat- 
ment. It is also deadly to higher animals, and compartments should 
be thoroughly aired after fumigation. A safer remedy of the same 
nature consists in burning pyrethrum in the infested apartment. The 
smoke and vapors generated by the burning of this insecticide are 
often more effective in destroying roaches than the application of the 
substance in the ordinary way as a powder. There is no attendant 
danger of explosion, and the only precaution necessary is to see that 
the room is kept tightly closed for from six to twelve hours. The smoke 
of burning gunpowder is also very obnoxious and deadly to roaches, 
particularly the black English roach. On the authority of Mr.,Theo. 
Pergande, gunpowder is commonly used in Germany to drive these 
roaches out of their haunts about fireplaces. The method consists in 
molding cones of the moistened powder and placing them in the empty 
fireplace and lighting them. The smoke coming from the burning 
powder causes the roaches to come out of the crevices about the 
chimney and fire bricks in great numbers, and rapidly paralyzes or 
kills them, so that they may be afterwards swept up and destroyed. 
This remedy will only apply to old houses with large fireplaces, and 
has no especial significance for the modern house. It is presented, 
however, as a means applicable wherever conditions similar to those 
described occur. 

Trapping. — Various forms of traps have been very successfully 



COCKROACHES AND HOUSE ANTS. 95 



employed in England and on the continent of Europe as a means of col- 
lecting and destroying roaches. These devices are all so constructed 
that the roaches may easily get into them and can not afterwards 
escape. The destruction of the roaches is effected either by the liquid 
into which they fall or by dousing them with hot water. A few of the 
common forms of traps and the methods of using them are here 
described. 

A French trap consists of a box containing an attractive bait, the 
cover of which is replaced by four glass plates inclined toward the 
center. The roaches fall from the covering glasses into the box and are 
unable to escape. A similar trap used in England is described by 
Westwood. It consists of a small wooden box in which a circular hole 
is cut in the top and fitted with a glass ring, so that it is impossible for 
the roaches to escape. This trap is baited nightly, and the catch thrown 
each morning into boiling water. A simpler form of trap, which I am 
informed by Mr. F. 0. Pratt is very successfully used in London, Eng- 
land, consists of any deep vessel or jar, against which a number of 
sticks are placed, and bent over so that they project into the interior of 
the vessel for a few inches. The vessel is partially filled with stale beer 
or ale, a liquid for which roaches seem to have a special fondness. In 
the morning these vessels are found charged with great quantities of 
dead and dying roaches, which have climbed up the inclined sticks and 
slipped off into the vessel. We have had fair success with this last 
method against the oriental roach in Washington, but against the more 
wary and active Oroton bug it is comparatively useless. 

Traps of the sort described, placed in pantries or bakeries, will unques- 
tionably destroy great quantities of roaches, and keep them, perhaps, 
more effectively in check than the use of the troublesome insect powders 
or the distribution of poisoned bait, especially as the latter are so often 
ineffective. 

NATURAL ENEMIES AND PARASITES. 

The common European egg parasite of the roach, Evania appendi- 
gaster, is now probably widely distributed. It occurs in the United 
States and has also been found in Cuba. Unfortunately, its usefulness 
is largely impaired by the occurrence of a secondary parasite, Entedon 
hagenowi, which preys upon and destroys the first, and has also been 
introduced into this country with it. 

A correspondent informs us also that the common tree frog will clear 
rooms of roaches over night very effectually. 

HOUSE ANTS. 

(Monomorium pharaonis, et al.) 

There are a number of species of ants often occurring in houses, the 
more important of which are common to both hemispheres, and are 
probably of Old World origin. One of these, the little red ant (Monomo- 
rium pharaonis Linn.), has become thoroughly domesticated and passes 



96 PRINCIPAL HOUSEHOLD INSECTS. 

its entire existence in houses, having* its nests in the walls or beneath 
the flooring, and usually forming its new colonies in similar favorable 
situations. Two other ants are very common nuisances in houses, 
namely, the little black ant (Monomorium minutum Mayr) and the 
pavement ant of the Atlantic Seaboard (Tetramorium ccespitum Linn.). 
None of these ants are so destructive to household effects or supplies 
as they are annoying from the mere fact of their presence and their 
faculty for "getting into" articles of food, particularly sugars, sirups, 
and other sweets. Having once gained access to stores of this sort, 
the news of the discovery is at once conveyed to the colony, and in an 
incredibly short time the premises are swarming with these unwelcome 
visitors. 

In habits and life history these ants are all much alike, and, in com- 
mon with other social insects, present that most complex and inter- 
esting phase of communal life, with its accompanying division of labor 
and diversity of forms of individuals, all working together in the most 

perfect harmony and accord. The spec- 
imens ordinarily seen in houses are all 
neuters, or workers. In the colony itself, 
if it be discovered and 
opened, will be found 
also the larger wing- 
less females and, at 
the proper season, the 
winged males and fe- 
males. During most 
of the year, however, 
the colony consists 

Fig. 43. — The red ant (Monomorium pharaonia) : a, female; b, almost eXCluSlVelV Of 
worker— enlarged (from Riley). , .., 

workers, with one or 
more perfect wingless females. Winged males and females are pro- 
duced during the summer and almost immediately take their nuptial 
flight. The males soon perish, and the females shortly afterwards 
tear off their own wings, which are but feebly attached, and set about 
the establishment of new colonies. The eggs, which are produced 
in extraordinary numbers by the usually solitary queen mother, are 
very minute, oval, whitish objects, and are cared for by the workers, 
the young larvse being fed in very much the same way as in the colo- 
nies of the hive bee. The so-called ant eggs, in the popular concep- 
tion, are not eggs at all, but the white larvae and pupa?, and, if of 
females or males, are much larger than the workers and many times 
larger than the true eggs. 

As a house species the red ant {Monomorium pharaonis Linn.) (fig. 43) 
is the common one. It is practically cosmopolitan, and its exact origin 
is unknown. This species, nesting habitually in the walls of houses or 
beneath flooring, is often difficult to eradicate. There is no means of 




COCKROACHES AND HOUSE ANTS. 



97 



doing this except to locate the nest by following the workers back to 
their point of entrance. If in a wall the inmates may sometimes be 
reached by injecting bisulphide of carbon or a little kerosene. If under 
flooring it may sometimes be possible to get at them by taking up a 
section. Unless the colony can be reached and destroyed all other 
measures will be of only temporary avail. 

The little black ant (Monomorium minutum Mayr) (fig. 44) is not strictly 
a house species, although frequently occurring indoors, and becoming at 
times quite as troublesome as the red ant. Its colonies usually occur 
under stones in yards, but are frequently found in the fields, and will 
be recognized from the little pyramids of fine grains of soil which sur- 




FlG. 44. — The little black ant (Monomorium minutum): a, female; b, same with, wings; c, male; d, 
workers ; e, pupa ; /, larva ; g, egg of worker— all enlarged (original) . 



round the entrances to the excavations. If these colonies be opened 
they will be found to contain workers and usually one or more very 
much larger gravid females. This species, when occurring in houses, 
can often be traced to its outdoor colony, and the destruction of this 
will prevent further trouble. 

The pavement ant of our Eastern cities ( Tetramorium ccespitum Linn.) 
(fig. 45) is in Europe the common meadow ant, and is two or three times 
larger than either of the other species referred to. It was early intro- 
duced into this country, and, while not yet reported from the West, is 
very common in Eastern towns, and particularly here in Washington. 
It has readily accommodated itself to the conditions of urban existence,, 
21470— No. 4 7 



98 



PRINCIPAL HOUSEHOLD INSECTS. 



and commonly has its colonies under pavements, where it is often diffi- 
cult of access, or beneath flagging or stones in yards. It is often a more 
persistent and pestilent house nuisance than the true house ant. 

This seems to be' the species referred to by Kalm ] in 1748 as often 
occurring in houses in Philadelphia and manifesting a great fondness 
for sweets. He records also some interesting experiments made by 
Mr. (Benjamin ?) Franklin, indicating the ability of these ants to commu- 
nicate with one another. 

The colonies of the pavement ant are often large, and they may fre- 
quently be uncovered in masses of a quart or more on turning over 
stones in yards or lifting flagging in paths. 

This ant may be often with little difficulty traced to its nest, which, 
if accessible, or not thoroughly protected by unbroken pavement, as of 




Fig. 45.— The pavement ant (Tetramorium ccespitum): a, winged female; 6, same -without "wings ; 
c, male; d, worker; e, larva of female; /, head of same; g, pupa of same— all enlarged (original). 

asphalt, can be rather easily exterminated. So well established is the 
species, however, that new colonies will usually soon take the place of 
those destroyed. 

Drenching the nests with boiling water or saturating them with coal 
oil, which latter also may be introduced into cracks in pavements or 
walls, are effective means of abating the nuisance of this ant. 

There are several other ants closely resembling this last, mostly 
species of Lasius, some foreign and some native, which form large 
colonies in yards, throwing up eartheu ant hills, beneath which are 
extensive systems of underground galleries. These may often get into 
near-by houses and become quite as troublesome as the ants already 
mentioned. 

Excellent success has been had in destroying these ants with the use 
of bisulphide of carbon applied in their nests: The method consists in 
pouring an ounce or two of the bisulphide into each of a number of 

balm's Travels, Vol. I, p. 238. 



COCKROACHES AND HOUSE ANTS. 99 

holes made in the nest with a stick, promptly closing the holes with the 
foot. The bisulphide penetrates through the underground tunnels 
and kills the ants in enormous numbers, and if applied with sufficient 
liberality will exterminate the whole colony. 

Whenever the nests Of aiiy of these ants can not be located, there is 
no other resource but the temporary expedient of destroying them 
wherever they occur in the house. The best means of effecting this 
end is to attract them to small bits of sponge moistened with sweetened 
water and placed in the situations where they are most numerous. 
These sponges may be collected several times daily and the ants 
swarming in them destroyed by immersion in hot water. It is reported 
also that a sirup made by dissolving borax and sugar in boiling water 
will effect the destruction of the ants readily and in numbers. The 
removal of the attracting substances, wherever practicable, should 
always be the first step. 

That it is possible to drive ants away from household supplies by the 
use of repellants is asserted by a Washington lady who has been much 
troubled in the past with these pests. Her practice, which she says 
has always given complete satisfaction, consists in placing gum cam- 
phor, either free or wrapped loosely in paper, in pantry, sugar barrel, 
or other situation infested with ants. The odor of the camphor seems 
to be very distasteful to them and they promptly leave the premises. 



OH APT BE VII. 
SOME INSECTS AFFECTING CHEESE, HAMS, FRUIT, AND VINEGAB 

By L. O. Howard. 

THE CHEESE, HAM, AND FLOUR MITES. 

{Tyroglyphus longior L. and T. siro Gerv.) 

Very minute, more or less colorless, eight-legged creatures swarm in 
numbers over and in old cheese and various stored products, such as 
dried meats, dried fruit, vanilla, and flour -of different kinds. The 
species maybe distinguished by the illustrations. Tyroglyphus longior 




Fig. 46. — Tyroglyphus longior: a, female; b, male— greatly enlarged (after Canestrini). 

is more rapid in its movements, larger in size, with longer and more cyl- 
indrical body, and longer and more numerous shining hairs sticking out 
on the sides. The two species are frequently found feeding in common. 
Both species are common to Europe and the United States, and both 
have probably been carried to all parts of the world in food supplies. 
100 



SOME INSECTS AFFECTING CHEESE, HAMS, FRUIT, ETC. 101 



Aristotle knew the cheese mites and spoke of them as the smallest 
of living creatures. Many subsequent writers have figured them and 
mentioned them, but the full life history was not known until 1868, 
when Claparede determined that the genus Hypopus was composed of 
forms which are steps in the development of true tyroglyphids. 

All through the summer months, and in warm houses during the 
winter months, these creatures breed with astonishing rapidity and 
fecundity. The rapidity of multiplication and the extraordinary num- 
bers in which these mites will occur under favorable conditions are 
almost incredible. In 1882 T. longior was found in an Ohio packing 
house, covering the dried and packed refuse (ready for sale as a fertil- 
izer) in a layer which in some places was half an inch in thickness. At 
a low estimate 1 square inch of such a layer would contain 100,000 indi- 
viduals. The females bring forth their young alive, and these in turn 
reach full growth and reproduce, until a 
cheese, once infested by a few, swarms with 
the crawling multitude, which cause its solid 
mass to crumble and become mixed with 
excremental pellets and cast-off skins. 
Through the summer months the mites are 
soft bodied and have comparatively feeble 
powers of locomotion, and when they have 
become numerous enough to devour the 
whole of a cheese, with no other food at 
hand, it was for a long time a puzzle to know 
what became of them and to understand 
how a cheese could become affected without 
contact with another infested cheese or 
without being placed in an infested room. It 
has been ascertained, however, that when 
necessity requires it, and when the insects 
haj)pen to be in the proper stage of growth, 
they have the power of not only almost indefinitely prolonging exist- 
ence, but of undergoing a complete change of form, acquiring hard, 
brown protective coverings into which all of the legs can be drawn in 
repose. Back in Van Leeuwenhoek's time this Dutch naturalist showed 
that even the softer form can undergo a fast of eleven weeks without 
apparent discomfort, and it is now known that in the hard-shell or 
Hypopus state it may remain for many months without food. 

In the majority of cases, however, where a given cheese is completely 
destroyed, all of the young and old mites perish and only those of 
middle age which are ready to take on the Hypopus condition survive. 
These fortunate survivors, possessing their souls with patience," retire 
into their shells and fast and wait, and as everything comes to him who 
waits, some lucky day a mouse or house fly or some other insect comes 
that way, and the little mite clings to it and is carried away to some 




Fig. 47. — Tyroglyphus siro: female— 
greatly enlarged (after Berlese). , 



102 PRINCIPAL HOUSEHOLD INSECTS. 

spot where another cheese or food in some other form is at hand. It 
is in this way, as well as by the more readily understood means, that 
new cheese becomes infested and that the insect makes its appearance 
in pantries supposed to be perfectly clean. 

REMEDIES AND PREVENTIVE MEASURES. 

When we consider the great hardihood and extreme tenacity of life 
of this insect in the Hypopus condition, and the fact that almost every 
flying or crawling thing may become its common carrier, the difficulty 
of disinfecting a storeroom and of keeping it disinfected becomes very 
plain. Nothing, in fact, but the utmost cleanliness and watchfulness 
will prevent the appearance of the mites. When they have once entered 
a cheese, for example, there is no remedy except to cut out the infested 
portions. All energies must be bent toward prevention. If a given 
room seems to be badly infested it should be cleaned out, fumigated 
with sulphur, and washed out thoroughly with kerosene emulsion. 
Food supplies liable to be infested should be inspected daily during 
hot weather. 

It is a point of considerable interest and of some practical account 
that there often occur, where these mites are present in numbers, one or 
more species of predaceous mites which feed exclusively on the injurious 
individuals and tend to greatly lessen their numbers. Some years ago 
a gentleman in Milwaukee sent the writer some thousands of mites 
which were found in a bin of wheat in an old elevator. They occurred 
in such numbers that every morning a quart or more could be swept 
up below the spout where they had sifted out. An examination of 
specimens sent showed that three species of predaceous mites were 
present among the others, and one of them was so numerous that there 
was no hesitation in writing to the Milwaukee gentleman that the pre- 
daceous mites would probably soon destroy the wheat feeders and thus 
the pest of mites would correct itself. The prediction was speedily 
verified in x^art a week or so later, when the correspondent wrote: "As 
you say, the parasitic mites have largely destroyed the smaller ones, 
and I suppose when their food is all gone they will die of starvation." 

THE CHEESE SKIPPER OR HAM SKIPPER. 

(Piophila casei Linn.) 

A small, glistening, black, two-winged fly lays its eggs on cheese, 
smoked ham, and chipped beef. The eggs hatch into small white cylin- 
drical maggots which feed upon the cheese or meat and rapidly reach 
full growth, at which time they are one-fifth of an inch in length. The 
maggot is commonly called " skipper" from its wonderful leaping pow- 
ers, which it possesses in common with certain other fly larvae, all of 
which are devoid of legs. The leap is made by bringing the two ends 
of the body together and suddenly releasing them like a spring. In 
this way it will sometimes jump 3 or 4 inches. 



SOME INSECTS AFFECTING CHEESE, HAMS, FRUIT, ETC. 103 

This insect, like so many other household species, is cosmopolitan, 
and was doubtless originally imported from Europe into the United 
States. 

Careful observations on the life history of this species have been 
made by several writers. In 1892 Miss M. E. Murtfeldt, whose atten- 
tion was called to the species on account of the great damage which it 
was represented to be doing in certain Western packing and curing 
establishments, studied the life history of the summer generation. 1 
The eggs were shown by Miss Murtfeldt to be deposited in more or less 
compact clusters of from 5 to 15, and also scattered singly. In her 
observation jars the average number was 30 to a single female, but it is 
possible that under these abnormal conditions the number was smaller 




Fig. 48. — Piophila casei: a, larva; b, puparium ; c, pupa; d, male fly ; e, female with wings folded — all 

enlarged (original). 

than usual. The egg is white, slender, oblong, slightly curved, 1 mm. 
in length, with a diameter of about one-fourth its length. Hatching 
takes place within thirty-six hours. The larva is cylindrical, tapering 
gradually toward anterior end, and truncate posteriorly, furnished at 
hinder extremity with two horny projecting stigmata and a pair of 
fleshy filaments. The larva completes its growth in from seven to eight 
days, attaining a length of from 7 to 9 mm. While feeding, if the food 
supply is sufficient it does not move about mnch, entire clusters of 
larvae often completing their growth in the same crevice in which the 
mother flies deposited their eggs. When mature, however, it moves 
away to some dry spot, contracts in length, assumes a yellowish color, 
and gradually forms into a golden-brown puparium 4 or 5 mm. in length. 



Insect Life, Vol. VI, pp. 170-175. 



104 PRINCIPAL HOUSEHOLD INSECTS. 

In ten days the adult fly issues. Miss Murtfeldt was uuable to make 
the fly lay its eggs on fresh meat of any kind, nor did she find that it 
was able to breed upon meat which was simply salty. The average 
duration of adult larvae, according to her observations, does not exceed 
a week, and thus the entire life cycle maybe concluded in three weeks. 
These observations were made in August. 

During February of the same year specimens of the same insect were 
sent by a Kansas packing house to Mr. Y. L. Kellogg, then of the 
Kausas State University. At that time of the year his breeding notes 
show that the egg state occupied about four days, the larva state about 
two weeks, and the pupa state one week. 1 The adults lived in the- 
breeding jars from six days to two weeks after issuing from the puparia. 
Larvae kept with ham and bacon did not take at all kindly to cheese 
to which they were removed. Careful observations on the life history in 
Europe have been made by Dr. H. F. Kessler. 2 Dr. Kessler found that 
the average time in developing from the egg to the adult is four to five 
weeks, with two or three generations during the summer, the last 
generation occurring in September, the larva over-wintering in the 
puparium and transforming to pupa in May. Other writers say that 
the insect passes the winter in the adult stage. 

As a cheese insect in this country this fly does not play as impor- 
tant a role as it does as an enemy to smoked meat. It is a matter of 
observation that the mother fly seems to prefer the older and richer 
cheeses in which to deposit eggs. Her taste is excellent, and while 
it is a fair thing to say that " skippery " cheese is usually the best, it 
will hardly do to support the conclusion that it is good because it is 
" skippery," although this conclusion is current among a certain class 
of cheese eaters. With the abundance of the species in packing 
houses we have nothing to do in this connection. When occurring 
upon hams it seems to prefer the outer fatty portions. 

REMEDIES. 

All that we have said of the preventives for the cheese and meat 
mites will answer equally well for the " skipper." Portions of cheese 
and hams attacked should be cut out, shelves of pantries should be 
kept scrupulously clean, and the kerosene- emulsion wash used when it 
has once been determined that the insect is present in numbers. Every 
crack should be carefully washed out, since the puparia might be found 
in such situations. Close screening of the windows of pantries is 
advised to keep out the fly. 

1 Trans. Kans. Acad. Sci., Vol. XIII, 114-115. 

2 Bericht d. Ver. f. Naturk. z. Cassel, Vols. XXIX u. XXX, pp. 58-60. 



SOME INSECTS AFFECTING CHEESE, HAMS, FRUIT, ETC. 105 



THE RED-LEGGED HAM BEETLE. 

(Necrobla rufipes DeG.) 

Two or three species of small beetles belonging to the family Cleridre, 
and which are normally scavengers, feed occasionally upon dried meats 
and other stored animal products. The most abundant one in this 
country is the species indicated in the title. It is a small, rather slen- 
der beetle of dark bluish color, with reddish legs. Its larva is a slender 
worm, and is at first white, with a brown head and two small hooks at 
the end of the body. As it becomes older it becomes darker, and when 
full grown is grayish white, with a series of brown patches above. It 
is then rather more than one-half an inch in length and transforms 
within a paper-like cocoon. From the appearance of this cocoon the 

insect has become known 
as the " paper worm" to 
dealers in hams and dried 
meats. 

NecroMa rufipes is a cos- 
mopolitan species, occur- 
ring all over the United 
States, in Europe, Austra- 
lia, Africa, and the East 
Indies. It is hardly a spe- 
cies that causes a constant 
drain upon the profits of 
the trade, but occasion- 
ally, under exceptional 
circumstances, it becomes 
extremely abundant, and 
may ruin many hams. It 
is by no means uncommon, and is particularly abundant in the West 
and South. 

The injuries caused by this insect are generally due to careless pack- 
ing of hams or to the accidental cutting or cracking or even to a con- 
siderable stretching or fraying of the canvas covering. 

As indicated above, this insect is not confined to hams for its food, but 
lives upon other dead animal matter, not always waiting, however, as do 
certain other insects, for decomposition to set in before beginning its 
attacks. The beetle, appearing in May or June, either having bred in 
the storehouse or storeroom in question, or having flown in from the 
outside, is attracted to the hams, and wherever it can find the slightest 
bit of exposed meat it lays a number of minute, narrow, whitish eggs. 
Such hams as have been injured by overheating or by hanging too long 
in the sun, from rain, and particularly those which have become slimy 
from lying too long in the pile, are those which attract it most ; but it 
never seems to lay eggs except where the meat is more or less exposed, 




0/ 



Fig. 49. — Necrobia rufipes : a, larva; h, head 
of same; c, adult beetle— a, c, enlarged; 
b, greatly enlarged (original). 



106 PRINCIPAL HOUSEHOLD INSECTS. 

or, at all events, if it does lay the eggs, the young grubs, on hatching, 
fail to reach the meat, except where they are not obliged to penetrate 
the canvas. 

The larvae hatch iu a few days and burrow into the fatty tissue near 
the rind, growing rapidly, and seeming to congregate, by preference, 
in the hollow of the bone at the butt end of the ham. As stated above, 
they are, when first hatched, white in color, with a brown head and two 
small hooks at the end of the body. They are slender and very active, 
and upon reaching full growth they either gnaw into the muscle of the 
ham or occasionally eat into a neighboring beam, forming a glistening, 
paper-like cocoon, which appears granulated on the outside. Within _ 
this cocoon the larva casts its skin and assumes the pupa state, issuing 
as a perfect beetle in a longer or a shorter time. According to Dr. 
Riley, who treated this species in his Sixth Report on the Insects of 
Missouri (p. 96), there are several generations in the course of a year 
at St. Louis, but the winter is invariably passed in the larval condition, 
the first beetles appearing, as previously stated, not earlier than the 
1st of May, and usually not before the middle of that month. 1 

REMEDIES 

The only remedies which need be insisted upon in case of customary 
damage to ham by this insect are the early and very careful packing of 
the hams and the use of strong canvas, impenetrable by the insect, and 
which is not likely to fray or break. These measures are the direct 
result of the knowledge of the life history of the insect. 

Two instances in the experience of Dr. Riley are of -sufficient interest 
to deserve specific mention. In 1871 and in previous years the firm of 
Francis Whittaker & Sons, of St. Louis, had suffered serious loss from 
the damage done by this beetle. After an investigation of the facts 
they were advised that all of the canvasing on the hams should be done 
earlier than was customary, or prior to the first of May, and also that a 
heavier canvas be itsed, to prevent the possibility of its giving way 
upon the small ends. This advice was followed, with the result that 
during the ensuing year not a single ham was lost or returned by a 
customer on account of worms. 

The second case was that of S. S. Pierce, of Boston, who, in May, 
1873, received 22 tierces of hams from a Cincinnati firm. The hams 
were taken from the casks and hung in the loft, and not examined until 
August, when they were found to be full of worms. Claim was made 
on the packers for damages, and it was finally agreed to leave the 
matter to referees, who were selected from prominent packers, and who 
decided in favor of the Cincinnati firm. The fact is, however, as could 

] Mr. Schwarz states that lie has found the adult beetles in the dead of winter in 
Detroit, Mich., and Cambridge, Mass., and calls our attention to the fact that the 
species is recorded by H. T. Fay in his article on winter collecting (Proc. Entonio 
Soc. Phil., Vol. I, p. 197, 1862). 



SOME INSECTS AFFECTING CHEESE, HAMS, FRUIT, ETC. 107 

readily have been shown had an expert entomologist been called in, 
that if the covering* of the hams was sound, and had been kept intact 
while in the hands of the Boston firm, as seems to have been proven 
by them, the eggs must have been laid before the hams left Cincinnati. 
The difference in climate between Cincinnati and Boston would also 
give added weight to the Boston claim. The lack of knowledge of the 
actual facts governing the case is shown by the written opinion of one 
of the packing experts, who stated that, whereas the Cincinnati firm had 
previously used manila paper in packing their hams, they had begun to 
use husk, which was "very likely to contain the germ from which the 
worm is bred." ! 

The insect is hardly a factor in housekeeping except in the country, 
where a farmer may put up a small number of hams for home consump- 
tion during the ensuing year. In ordinary households a wormy ham 
need only be returned to the dealer from whom it was bought. 

THE LARDER BEETLE. 

(Dermestes lardarius Linn.) 

A dark-brown beetle of the shape illustrated in the figure, with a 
pale, yellowish- brown band containing six black dots across the upper 
half of the wing covers, three-tenths of an inch in length. The larva 
is brown and hairy, tapers from head to tail, and is furnished with 
two short, curved, horny spines on top of the last joint of the body. 
It is a common museum pest, and is found in many kinds of animal 
food products, such as hams, bacon, and other kinds of meat, old cheese 
(of which it seems to be especially fond), horn, hoofs, skins, beeswax, 
silkworm cocoons, feathers, and hair. It has never been recorded as 
damaging woolen cloth, and its popular name, "larder" or "bacon" 
beetle, is a very appropriate one. 

The insect has long been known in the United States. It is also 
found in all parts of Europe and in Asia. It is considered by Dr. Ham- 
ilton to be probably a native of the United States as well as introduced 
by commerce. It seems to occur in all parts of this country. 

There are recorded no full and definite statements regarding the life 
history of this species, and we have made no observations which will 
enable us to give the length of life, duration of different stages, and 
other facts of equal interest. Under favorable conditions, however, 
the insect is unquestionably a rapid breeder. Miss Caroline E. Heus- 
tis, of St. John, New Brunswick, in the August (1878) number of the 
Canadian Entomologist, states that five weeks after placing a female 
in a glass jar, with a piece of meat, she fouud a large and flourishing 
colony of larva?, most of them full grown. Dr. Gr. H. Horn, in the 
Proceedings of the Entomological Society of Philadelphia (Vol. 1, 1861, 
p. 28), states that the insect remains in the pupa condition for a period 
varying from three or four days to a week, or even more, depending 
principally on the warmth of the locality. From this statement we see 



108 



PRINCIPAL HOUSEHOLD INSECTS. 



that an entire generation may "be developed in six weeks. Therefore^ 
the increase of the insect may be very rapid and there may be four or 
five generations annually. The larva, when feeding upon dried and 
smoked meat, according to Dr. Horn, is usually seen creeping on the 
surface of the meat. For food it prefers such as contains fat and con- 
nective tissue, seldom attacking the muscular portions. It does not 
bury itself in its food until about the time of assuming the pupa state. 
In general, the beetles make their way into houses in May and June, 
and at once deposit their eggs on their favorite food if they can obtain 
access to it. Where this is impossible they will lay their eggs, as will 
other beetles of the same family, near small cracks, so that the young 




3^ 









Fig. 50.—Dermesteslardarius: a, larva; b, pupa; c, adult beetle— all enlarged (original). 

larvae when hatched can crawl through. Dr. Riley, in his Sixth Mis- 
souri Report, states that fresh hams are not so liable to attack by this 
insect as are those which are tainted or injured. 



REMEDIES. 

Where a storeroom is overrun with this insect its contents should be 
cleared out, so far as practicable, and the room should either be sprayed 
with benzine or subjected to strong fumes of bisulphide of carbon. 
Where an article of diet such as a ham, has begun to be infested, the 
affected portion should be cut away and the surface should be washed 
with a very dilute carbolic solution. Miss Lleustis, in the article above- 
mentioned, showed that tallow was very offensive and destructive to 
this insect, but there is seldom a case where this interesting frt of 
knowledge can be utilized. Dr. Hagen, when he first came to Cam- 
bridge, found his office overrun with this insect. On a sunny day in 



SOME INSECTS AFFECTING CHEESE, HAMS, FRUIT, ETC. 109 

November the southern outer wall was speckled with them. He suc- 
ceeded in ridding the establishment by trapping them day after day 
with a piece of cheese. The cheese proved to be extremely attractive, 
and he destroyed them by hand two or three times a day until he had 
practically exterminated them. Shortly after the introduction of the 
Pasteur system of silkworm moth inspection for pebrine in France, 
according to Maurice Girard, great damage was done by this Dermestid, 
which attacked first the bodies of the moths as they were attached to 
their egg receptacles. They laid their eggs in the moths, and their larvae 
first ate the bodies and afterwards the silkworm eggs themselves, thus 
occasioning in 1S71 at Pont Gisquet a loss of one-third of the egg crop. 
The remedial measures adopted were to screen the windows with a very 
fine wire gauze to prevent the entrance of beetles and afterwards to 
submit the rooms to fumigation with bisulphide of carbon or corrosive 
sublimate. 

An interesting case of damage to bacon was mentioned by Dr. Lint- 
ner in the Cultivator and Country Gentleman for June 26, 1884. An 
individual in Walkersville, Mel., had found bacon hung up in paper 
meat sacks the 1st of March affected with beetles, and larva3 later in 
the season, presumably in June. The beetles must have oviposited in 
the bacon before sacking, or there must have been cracks in the paper 
bags through which the young larvae entered. The date of the bag- 
ging renders the former hypothesis improbable. The instance seemed 
to show the necessity for very careful and early bagging. The slightest 
crack or slit in the paper would be large enough to allow the entrance 
of the newly hatched larva, since the beetles will lay their eggs near 
such a crack or slit. Dr. Lintner further advised a thorough white- 
washing of the apartment in which the sacks were hung, which in this 
case was a garret. 

THE FRUIT FLIES OR VINEGAR FLIES. 

(Drosophila spp.) 

There are in North America about thirty species of light-brown flies 
belonging to the genus Drosophila, of which perhaps the majority 
breed in the juices of decaying and fermenting fruit. Their larvas are 
small, white, slender maggots, and are frequently found in canned fruits 
and pickles which have been imperfectly sealed, occurring mostly near 
the top of the jars, but living without inconvenience in the briny or 
vinegary liquid and transforming within brown puparia around the 
edges of the jar. The commonest species seem to be D. ampelophila 
Loew and J), amoena Loew. 

The majority of the species are strictly North American, and this 
includes the two specially mentioned in the paragraph above, although 
D. ampelophila has also been fouud in Cuba. Several species, however, 
are common to Europe and the United States, for example, D. funebris, 
J), graminum, -and D. transversa. D. ampelophila seems the commonest 



110 



PRINCIPAL HOUSEHOLD INSECTS. 



species all over the United States and is mainly responsible for the 
injury to canned fruits and pickles. 

All of the species of Drosophila are probably rapid breeders. Care- 
ful descriptions of the early stages of D. ampelophila and D. amcena 
are given by Professor Comstock in the Annual Eeport of the Depart- 
ment of Agriculture for 1881-82. The first-named species he calls the 
vine-loving pomace fly, and he met with it frequently in the course of 
an investigation of the apple maggot (Trypeta pomonella), the flies en- 
tering apples which had been injured by the Trypeta, completing the 
work of disintegration and hastening decay. They are found com- 
monly, according to Comstock, about the refuse of cider mills and fer- 
menting vats of grape pomace. D. amcena he found to be associated 
with the former species in apples previously damaged by the Trypeta, 
but it was not so abundant as I), ampelophila. The larvae of both 




Fig. 51. — Drosophila ampelophila: a, adult fly; b, antenna; c, base of tibia and first tarsal joint; d, 
puparium, side view; e, same, dorsal view; /, larva; g, anal segment of same — a, d, e,f, much enlarged; 
b, c, g, still more enlarged (original). 

species, and presumably other species of the genus as well, are fur- 
nished with strong anal spiracles through which the larvae is able to 
breathe by protuding simply the end of its body to the air. There are 
also delicate tufts about the anal spiracles which may be branchial in 
their character. 

Professor Forbes, in the Transactions of the Illinois State Horticul- 
tural Society, 1884, mentions the damage done by D. ampelophila to the 
grape crop at Moline, 111. He states that they attack most frequently 
grapes which have been mutilated by birds or damaged by rot, but 
once having commenced on a cluster are likely to pass from one berry 
to another, the flies meantime constantly laying eggs. 

Dr. Lintner, in his first report as State entomologist of New York, 
mentions the habits of the European species, showing that D. cellaris 
occurs in fermented liquids in cellars, such as wine, cider, vinegar, and 
beer, and also in decayed potatoes. He also states that a species had 
been sent to him as damaging flour paste. He had observed particu- 
larly a species which occurred in ajar of mustard pickles. The larvae, 



SOME INSECTS AFFECTING CHEESE, HAMS, FRUIT, ETC. Ill 

when nearly fnll grown, left the liquid and advanced to the side and 
top of the glass jar where he had placed them, where they could be 
observed feeding on condensed moisture. They transformed to puparia, 
from which the first flies issued in four days. 

Mr. G. J. Bowles, in the Canadian Entomologist for June, 1882, 
figures roughly the different stages of J), ampelophila and gives an 
account of its damage to raspberry vinegar. An earthenware jar had 
been nearly filled with raspberries and vinegar. On opening the jar 
about ten days later (August 1G) it was found to be swarming with 
the larvae and cocoons of the insect. Hundreds of the larvae were 
crawling on the sides of the jar and the underside of the cover, while 
pupae were found abundantly, single and in clusters, particularly where 
the cover touched the top of the jar. The short time required for the 
production of so many individuals was surprising. Mr. Bowles half 
filled a covered tumbler 'with the pickled raspberries and larvae, and 
they continued to produce flies for several weeks. The following season 
the same observer noticed that the flies were attracted to some rasp- 
berry wine in process of fermentation, hovering about the jars and 
alighting upon the corks, evidently seeking for an opening through 
which they might pass to lay their eggs. At another time he placed a 
few raspberries, with a small quantity of vinegar, in a pickle jar with a 
loose cover. A fortnight afterwards a number of larvae were seen in 
the bottle, and several pupae were attached to its sides. 

This statement, together with Dr. Lintner's, that the pupal state may 
last but four days, shows that a brood may develop in twenty days. 
The general habits of these insects are well understood by almost every 
housewife. The writer has often observed them about his own house, 
and has seen the larvae working under conditions described by Mr. 
Bowles, and he is informed by Mr. Marlatt that one of the species is 
extremely abundant at Manhattan, Kans., and that in his own house- 
hold the greatest care was necessary to prevent them from entering 
fruit jars. 

REMEDIES. 

The common entrance of these little Drosophilas into pantries and 
storerooms, as well as into dining rooms where fruit is kept upon the 
sideboard, is another argument in favor of careful window screening. 
Where they have once entered a jar of fruit it is not necessary to throw 
away the entire contents of the jar, since the larvae occur only on the 
top layers. These may be removed, and the remainder of the contents 
may often prove pure and sweet. All fruit canned while hot and her- 
metically sealed will be safe. The flies will lay their eggs upon the jar, 
perhaps, or upon the cloth covering, and an almost imperceptible open- 
ing will suffice for the newly hatched maggot to enter; so the sealing 
must be perfect. An occasional puffing of pyrethrum about the store- 
room will destroy the flies which may have gained entrance. Where a 
jar has once been opened its contents can be preserved where these 
insects are numerous only by placing it in some tight receptacle. 



CHAPTER Yin. 

INSECTS AFFECTING CEREALS AND OTHER DRY VEGETABLE 

FOODS. 

By F. H. Chittenden. 

Of the many insects that infest the granary, flouring mill, and ware- 
house, a considerable proportion contrive at times to find their way 
into habitations. A small number of these are of almost universal 
occurrence in the household, and several others are frequently brought 
into the pantry or storeroom in cereal foods, dried fruits, and other 
merchandise. 

Kot so long ago that it has passed out of remembrance it was cus- 
tomary in well-regulated households, even in large cities, to set aside a 
room, in addition to the cupboard and cellar, for the storage of barrels 
of flour, bags of meal, boxes of raisins, dried apples, and the like, and 
such custom still p re vails in country homes ; but at the present time 
city housekeepers purchase for the most part in small quantities at the 
"corner grocery" from time to time as required. As a consequence, the 
city housewife, unless she should happen to reside in the immediate 
neighborhood of a store or warehouse, is not so subject to annoyance 
from storeroom insects as are her country cousins. There is this differ 
ence, however, th.'.t the farmer's wife is prone to look upon as a neces- 
sary evil what the city housekeeper may behold as a veritable calamity. 
Fortunately, the insects that breed in dry vegetable foods and that dis- 
play a disposition to make a permanent abode of the storeroom number 
not more than about a dozen, the remainder, of which a few forms will 
be selected for passing notice, being only casual visitants and readily 
controlled under ordinary conditions. 

THE FLOUR BEETLES. 

Several little flattened beetles of a shining reddish brown color and 
similar appearance generally so frequently occur in bags and barrels 
of flour as to have earned the popular title of "flour weevils." They 
live upon cereal and other seeds and various other stored products, but 
generally prefer flour and meal and patented articles of diet containing 
farinaceous matter. 

Their eggs are often deposited in the flour in the mills, and these and 
the larvae they produce, being minute and pale in color, readily escape 
notice 5 but after the flour has been barreled or placed in bags and left 
unopened for any length of time the adult beetles make their appear- 
ance, and in due course the flour is ruined, for when the insects have 
112 



113 



time to propagate they soon convert the flour into a gray useless mass. 
A part of the annoyance to purchaser, dealer, and manufacturer is due 
to the fact that the insects are highly offensive, a few specimens being 
sufficient to impart a disagreeable and persistent odor to the infested 
substance. 

THE CONFUSED FLOUR BEETLE. 

(Tribolium con f us inn Duv.) 

The most injurious enemy to prepared cereal foods is undoubtedly the 
above-mentioned species. Singularly enough, in less than two years 
from the time of its first recognition as a distinct species occurring in 
this country, this insect had been reported as injurious in nearly every 
State and Territory in the Union. The divisional experience of a sin- 
gle year, 1894, shows that more complaints are made of injuries by 
this than of any other granivorous species. Mr. W. G. Johnson, in the 
American Miller of January 1, 1896, speaking of this insect as a mill 
pest, says that it was the most troublesome species of the year 1895, 
and expresses the 
belief that it had 
cost the millers of 
the United States 
over $100,000 in 
manufactured prod- 
ucts during that 
year. 

The mature i n - 
sect is shining red- 
dish brown in color 
and resembles in 
m i n i a t ure the 
adult of the fa- 
miliar meal-worm 
(Tenebrio), which 
will be referred to 

further on. It is 

scarcely a sixth of an inch long, being almost an exact counterpart of 

the rust red flour beetle (T. ferrugineum), with which it has been gen- 
erally confused, but may be distinguished by the structure of the 
antenna?, which are only gradually clavate, by its broader head, the 
cheeks being expanded at the sides and angulated at the eyes. The 
thorax above is gradually narrowed behind, its hind angles being more 
or less acute. The adult beetle is shown, enlarged, in the accompanying 
illustration (fig. 52) at a, and the head and antenna?, still more enlarged, 
at e. Tbe same parts of ferrugineum are presented at/ for comparison. 
This species, like nearly all the others that frequent the family store 
room, is what is termed a general feeder. It prefers, however, prepared 
cereals, and hence is most troublesome in flour, corn meal, oatmeal, 
21470— Ko. 4 8 




Fig. 52. — Tribolium confusum: a, beetle ; b, larva ; c, pupa — all enlarged ; 
d, lateral lobe of abdomen of pupa; e, bead of beetle, showing an- 
tenna; /, same of T. ferrugineum — all greatly enlarged (author's 
illustration). 



114 PRINCIPAL HOUSEHOLD INSECTS. 

cracked wheat, and patented foods, but likewise infests in the writer's 
experience such useful commodities as ginger, cayenne pepper, baking 
powder, orris root, snuff, slippery elm, peanuts, peas, beans, and seeds 
of various kinds that are kept long in store. It sometimes also attacks 
cabinets of dried insects. 

As an instance of the nature of injury to flour in households may be 
mentioned an experience recently reported, as it is one that may fall to 
the lot of any housekeeper. The house had been closed for six weeks, 
and on the return of the family the flour, which was kept in a large 
wooden bucket with tightly fitting cover, and known to the trade as a 
kanakin, was swarming with the larvae and beetles of this species. 
The damaged flour was removed and the bucket refilled, only to be again 
found with the insects at t\ ork in the fresh material. A personal exami- 
nation by the writer showed that the insects, or enough of them to 
cause reinfestation, had remained in the cracks of the bucket and in 
holes that they and their larvae, or Silvanus siirinamensis, which accom- 
panied them, had made in the soft wood. The bucket was again 
emptied and then scalded, which had the effect of killing all the insects 
except a few which were discovered to have escaped through holes 
which they had made in the bottom. The bottom was then painted. 

Two reports have reached this office of injury by this species to bak- 
ing powder. In one instance considerable damage had been done, 
resulting in the loss of an entire consignment, necessitating its replace- 
ment by the manufacturers, not to mention the annoyance to all parties 
concerned. Customers were returning boxes of the powder almost as 
soon as opened, on account of the presence of these beetles. The baking 
powder, of which wheat flour was in this instance one of the ingredients, 
is put up for sale in tight tin boxes, and so closely covered with paper 
as to be practically air-tight; consequently the insects must have gained 
entrance at the manufactory before the boxes were covered. 

The life history of this species is in brief as follows : The tiny, clear 
white eggs are attached to some convenient surface in the cracks or on 
the sides of the bag, barrel, or other receptacle in which the infested 
substance is contained. These hatch into minute larvae, which feed for 
a period, depending upon the temperature, and then transform to naked, 
white pupae, which in due time change to beetles, which copulate soon 
after transformation, and another generation enters upon its life round. 
In this manner several broods are generated in the course of a year. 
From observations conducted by the writer it has been learned that 
this insect is capable in an exceptionally high temperature of under- 
going its entire round of existence from egg to imago in thirty-six days. 
The minimum period of incubation was not ascertained, but it may be 
assumed as about six days. This, with six days for the pupal period-, 
gives twenty-four days as the shortest developmental period of the 
larva. In cooler weather these periods last two or three times as long. 



INSECTS AFFECTING CEREALS, ETC. 115 

In well-heated buildings in a latitude like that of Washington we thus 
have the possibility of at least four generations a year. 

The mature larva is shown in figure 52 at Z>, the pupa at c and d. 

THE RUST-RED FLOUR BEETLE. 

( Tribolium ferrug ineum Fab . ) 

This species, as previously stated, closely resembles the first-men- 
tioned flour beetle in color, form and size, but may be distinguished 
by the form of the head, which is not expanded beyond the eyes at the 
sides, and by the antennae, which terminate in a distinct three-jointed 
club (see fig. 52,/). In its habits and life history this insect closely 
resembles its congener, T. confusum, but it is apparently somewhat 
restricted to the Southern States, although occasionally found in the 
North. It is often reported in flour, meal, and grain, and is sometimes 
shipped north in consignments of rice. 

THE BROAD-HORNED FLOUR BEETLE. 

(Echocerus cornutus Fab.) 

A third flour beetle that sometimes finds its way into houses is the 
one above mentioned. It so closely resembles the two preceding spe- 
cies that the females particularly are with difficulty disti- guished from 
them. The male, with its broad, conspicuous man- 
dibular horns, is shown at fig. 53. The general habits 
of this species also so nearly resemble those of Tri- 
bolium that it will be unnecessary to give more than 
a brief mention of its known foods. It has been 
found in ground cereals of various sorts, including 
flour, meal, "germea," rolled barley, bread, army 
biscuit, maize, wheat, and rice. In southern Califor- 
nia it occurs even under bark, showing complete I 
acclimatization. It is somewhat limited in distribu- f 
tion in the United States, but is frequently met with fig. 53.— Echocerus cor- 
in large seaport towns, especially on the Pacific nutus: male ^eetie- 

~, . , . jt • -, ^ -r enlarged (original). 

Coast, and is on the increase elsewhere. In some 
parts of Europe, according to report, it is a veritable pest in bakeries 
by getting into the flour and into the masses of fermenting dough that 
accumulate upon the molds used in baking bread. 

THE MEAL-WORMS. 

Two species of beetles and their larvae, the latter familiar to nearly 
everyone under the name " meal-worms," attract attention by reason 
of their large size and somewhat serpent-like appearance when they 
invade the family flour barrel, the feed box, bags of bran or meal, or 
are turned up in unexpected places. These are among the many species 




116 



PRINCIPAL HOUSEHOLD INSECTS. 



that develop in refuse grain dust and mill products that are carelessly 
permitted to accumulate in the dark corners and out-of-the-way places 
in flouring mills, bakeries, stores, and stables. The two species are 
about equally common and do not differ materially in their habits, 
and although abundant -enough wherever grain is stored, do little or no 
damage to seed stock, being found mostly in corn meal and other ground 
products. They are also of some importance as enemies to ship biscuit. 
As with some of the other storehouse insects, the Tenebrios are not 
an unmixed evil, for they have a commercial value to the bird fancier, 
being used as food for nightingales, mocking birds, and other feathered 
songsters. 

THE YELLOW MEAL-WORM. 

( Tenebrio molitor Linn. ) 

The above-mentioned species is the meal-worm most often referred 
to in scientific literature. Its name — Tenebrio, meaning one who shuns 
the light; molitor, a miller — is suggestive of its habits and was given 



to it by Linnaeus in the year 1761 




Accounts of its larva, however, 
appeared many years 
earlier, one of these, by 
Thomas Moufet, dating 
back to the year 1G34. 
As it is in the larval 
stage that this insect is 
best known, the name 
"yellow meal - worm" 
is suggested to distin- 
guish it from the con- 
generic species, Avhich 
is much darker in color. 
The larva (see fig. 54, #) 






is cylindrical, long, and 
slender, attaining a 
length of upward of an 

Fid. 54.— Tenebrio molit or: a, larva; &,. pupa; c, female beetle; d, mcn ail( * being about 
egg, with surrounding case; e, antenna — a, b,.c, d, about twice eight times aS long 
natural size ; e, more enlarged (author's illustration, reengraved). i i t, • 1 

as oroaci. jll is waxen 
in appearance, much resembling a wireworm. In color it is yellow, 
shading to darker ochreous toward each end and near the articulation 
of each joint. The anal extremity terminates in two minute spines, 
not in a single point, as figured and described by West wood and other 
writers. The pupa (b) is white, and the adult insect, as will readily be 
seen by reference to the illustration, (c) resembles on a large scale one of 
the flour beetles. It is considerably over half an inch long, somewhat 
flattened, shining, and nearly black. An enlarged antenna is shown 
at e. 



INSECTS AFFECTING CEREALS, ETC. 117 

The eggs are white, beau-shaped, and about one-twentieth of an 
inch long, and are deposited by the parent beetle in the meal or other 
substance which is to serve as the food of the future larva, singly or 
in groups, as high as fourteen or sixteen being laid in a single day. 
Tbey are adhesive when first extruded and become attached to any 
surface upon which they are laid, and also take on a coating of par- 
ticles of meal or other material. In the illustration, at d, an vgg is 
shown in profile with its covering of meal. 

The beetles begin to appear in the latitude of Washington in April 
and May, occurring most abundantly in the latter month and in June, 
when they run and fly actively about in search of their mates and of a 
new place for the deposition of their eggs. In about two weeks from 
the time the eggs are laid the infant meal-worm, which is at first clear 
white in color and with prominent antennae and legs, makes its appear- 
ance. It soon turns yellow, and as it feeds voraciously its growth is 
rapid. In three months it attains approximate maturity, and from then 
till the following spring undergoes little change. After having shed 
about a dozen skins, beginning from soon after its hatching, it changes 
to pupa and in this state remains about a fortnight. It will, there- 
fore, be noticed that this species is annual in development, a single 
brood only appearing each year. The beetles are nocturnal, and, being 
moderately strong flyers, are often attracted to lights. They have the 
pungent odor characteristic of the family Tenebrionidae. 

In 1889 a physician sent us larval specimens of this meal-worm 
reported to have been ejected from the stomach of a patient, and there 
are many other records of similar occurrences of these larvae in the 
human body. We also received during the year a specimen of this 
insect, with an accompanying newspaper clipping giving an account of 
its having been taken in a hotel from a large pin cushion filled with 
u shorts." The noise made by the beetles scratching about in endeav- 
oring to obtain their exit from the cushion had caused a guest to com- 
plain that his room was haunted. (See Insect Life, Yol. II, p. 148.) 

THE DARK MEAL-WORM. 

(Tenebrio obscurus Linn.) 

The darker of the two meal-worm larvae has been called by writers 
the American meal-worm, an obvious misnomer, as this species, like the 
preceding, in all probability came originally from temperate Europe 
or Asia, and is, like other species most commonly found in the store- 
house, an introduced cosmopolite. 

The mature insect, illustrated at fig. 55, is very similar to the parent 
of tbe yellow meal-worm, being of nearly the same dimensions^ but 
distinguishable by its color, which is dull, piceous black. There are 
other points of difference, notably in the antennae, the third joint in the 
present species being perceptibly longer than in molitor. The larva also 




118 PRINCIPAL HOUSEHOLD INSECTS. 

resembles that of the preceding, differing chiefly in its much darker 
brownish markings. The pupa, however, is of the same whitish color. 

The beetles, in the writer's experience, ap- 
pear considerably earlier than do those of the 
yellow meal- worm. At Washington they 
may be found from the latter part of Febru- 
ary till July, occurring most abundantly in 
April and May. 

In 18 ( J0 a correspondent sent specimens of 
larvae that had been found in a grocery store 
in a parcel of adulterated ground black pep- 
per, and in the year 1896 we received a lot of 
living larvae from Dr. J. B. Porter, of Glen- 
dale, Ohio, that had been found in a box of 
commercial soda ash. We have also speci- 
mens that were taken among phosphate fer- 
Fi G .55.-Tenebrioobscurus. tilizers, cotton seed, and cotton meal. It 
si oukl be unnecessary to remark that these larvae did not feed upon 
the chemicals, although they lived in them for some time. 

THE MEAL MOTHS. 

Two species of moths, in addition to the clothes moths, are habitual 
frequenters of the household, the one attracting notice through the 
depredations of its larva in a variety of articles, the other chiefly by 
its beautiful appearance in the winged form. 

THE INDIAN-MEAL MOTH. 

(Plodia interpunctella Huelm.) 

A small moth of about the same size as the clothes moths, which it 
somewhat resembles when in flight, is very often found in stores, and 
through them is brought into the household, where it is an all-round 
nuisance, feeding upon almost anything edible. It makes its home 
almost everywhere, and is very sure to be found in boxes of preserved 
fruits if these are left open for any time, but does not disdain fruits 
that have been left in barrels to rot and dry up, as frequently happens. 

The common name of this insect is sufficiently indicative of its fond- 
ness for meal, and it feeds as well upon flour and upon grain of all 
sorts, ground or whole. In the writer's experience it breeds also in 
chick-peas and table beans, peanuts, English walnuts, almonds, edible 
acorns, chocolate beans, dried fruits of all kinds, including currants, 
raisins, peaches, apples, apricots, prunes, plums, and cherries, and seeds 
of several sorts. It has also been recorded as infesting clover seed, 
garlic heads, dried roots of dandelion, pecan nuts, and cinnamon bark, 
and has been reported to invade beehives, and does considerable damage 
at times in museums, feeding on herbarium specimens, and even attack- 
ing dried insects. 

The adult moth has a wing expanse of between a half and three- 
quarters of an inch, and is of the general appearance represented in 



INSECTS AFFECTING CEREALS, ETC. 



119 




Fig. 56. — Plodia iaicrpunctella : a, moth; b, chrysalis; c, caterpil- 
lar, lateral view: /. dorsal view — somewhat enlarged; d, head, 
and e, first abdominal segment of caterpillar — more enlarged (au- 
thor's illustration). 



the illustration (fig. 56, a). The outer two-thirds of the fore-wings are 
reddish brown, with a coppery luster; the inner portion and the hind- 
wings are light dirty 
grayish. The larva, 
or caterpillar, shown 
ate, d, e, and/, meas- 
ures when full grown 
about halt an inch and 
varies in color, being 
whitish, with light 
rose, yellowish or 
greenish tints. The 
pupa (&)is light brown 
in- color. 

The eggs are minute and white, and are deposited, to the number of 
350, singly and in groups of from three to a dozen or more, upon 
whatever substance the female may see fit to select for the sustenance 
of her offspring. In four or more days they hatch, and in four or more 
weeks another brood is produced. In this manner a succession of 
generations appears which will vary, according to the temperature of 
the building that the insect inhabits, from four to possibly six or seven 
a year. 

The caterpillars spin a certain amount of silk as they feed, joining 
together particles of their food and excrement, and thus injure for food 
several times the amount of material that they consume. When fully 
matured they crawl hither and thither, trailing large quantities of their 
silken threads after them, in their search for a suitable place for trans- 
formation, and finally surround themselves in a cylindrical silken web, 
in which they change to chrysalids and then to moths. 

THE MEAL SNOTJTOIOTH. 

{Pyralis farinalis Linn.) 

This species in its mature condition is the most attractive of all 
household insects. It measures across its expanded fore- wings upward 




Fig. 57. — Pyralis farinalis : a, adult moth; b, larva; c, pupa in cocoon — 
twice natural size (author's illustration, reengravedh 

of three-quarters of an inch. Its dark colors are of different shades 
of brown, with reddish reflections; the lighter colors are whitish and 



120 



PRINCIPAL HOUSEHOLD INSECTS. 



form the pattern shown in the illustration (tig. 57. a). The caterpillar 
(b) is whitish, shading- off to a darker color at either end, and with a 
reddish head. The pupa, shown in its enveloping cover of silk at c, 
and naked at fig. 58, r, is reddish brown. 

The habits of this moth are peculiar. The larvse subsist chiefly upon 
cereals, but seem not to prefer them in any particular condition, feed- 
ing alike on the seed, whole or ground, bran, husk, or straw. They 
will attack other seeds and dried plants, and are at times injurious to 
hay, particularly clover. They are also reported to feed upon stored 
potatoes. Larvse have been brought to this office in flour and speci- 
mens of the insect's work have been seen in sweet marjoram, an herb- 
used in cooking. The caterpillars live in long tubes or tunnels com- 
posed of silk and particles of meal or other material, and while thus 

incased in the obscure corners in which 
they habitually live are completely con- 
cealed from observation. When mature 
they leave them and construct cocoon-like 
cases and undergo transformation within. 

The life history of the meal snout- moth 
has not until recently been properly under- 
stood, efforts to rear and observe it having 
proved unsatisfactory. Certain European 
writers have expressed the belief that the 
species is biennial in development, but ex- 
periments recently conducted go to prove 
at least four generations a year. The spe- 
cies has been carried through all its stages 
in spring in about eight weeks. 
From recent experience it would seem that comparatively little danger 
need be apprehended from injuries by this insect if material upon which 
it is likely to feed be kept in a clean, dry place. Almost without excep. 
tion, the cases of damage attributable to it have occurred in cellars, 
upon floors, in outhouses, or in places where refuse vegetable matter 
had accumulated. 

THE GRAIN BEETLES. 

There are two clavicorn beetles, known, respectively, as the saw- 
toothed grain beetle and the cadelle, of omnivorous habits and universal 
distribution, that commonly occur in dwellings as well as in granaries, 
mills, and warehouses. The former is so small as to readily escape 
notice except when it is present in numbers- the latter, though seldom 
occurring in abundance, is conspicuous, both as larva and beetle, on 
account of its size. The two species resemble each other in being 
partially carnivorous and predaceous, following in the wake of other 
insects like the Indian-meal moth, the cadelle particularly making 
atonement for its ravages in the pantry supplies by destroying such 
small insects as cross its path that it is able to overcome. 




Fig. 58,— Pyralis farinalis : a, egg- 
mass ; b, eggs, more enlarged; c, egg 
showing embryo within; d, larva, 
dorsal view; e, pupa — all enlarged 
(authors illustration, reengraved). 



INSECTS AFFECTING CEREALS, ETC. 



121 



THE SAW-TOOTHED GRAIN BEETLE. 

(SUvanus surinamensis Linn.) 

Taken all in all, this is perhaps the commonest insect that habitually 
abides in groceries, and, excepting the so-called Croton bug, the one 
most often found in the pantry. Wherever anything edible is stored 
this insect will be found. It is chiefly vegetarian, but is almost omniv- 
orous, and is especially fond of cereals and breadstuff's, preserved fruits, 
nuts, and seeds of various kinds. Among other commodities of the 
household that are subject to its depredations may be mentioned yeast 
cakes, mace, snuff, and red pepper. 

The mature beetles will feed upon sugar and have been reported in 
starch, tobacco, and dried meats, but it is doubtful if the insect will 
breed in such substances. The beetles or their larvae have the -bad 




Fkj. 59. — SUvanus surinamensis: a, beetle; b, pupa; c, larva — all enlarged ; <7, antenna of larva — 
more enlarged (author's illustration). 

habit of perforating the paper bags in which flour and other comesti- 
bles are kept. When present in boxes of fruit — and they are very 
sure to be there if the covers are left off thoughout the summer — there 
may be no visible evidence of their presence until the bottom is reached, 
but here they will be found in great numbers, and when disturbed 
scamper off in the greatest haste. This insect is almost invariably 
present wherever the Indian meal moth is found, and the list of the 
food products that have been mentioned as subject to this moth's 
attack will answer about equally well for the beetle. 

As an instance of unusual trouble caused by this insect may be 
mentioned the case cited by Taschenberg of the beetles having invaded 
sleeping apartments adjoining a brewery where stores were kept and 
annoying the sleepers at night by nipping them in their beds. 

This beetle is a member of the family Oueujidse. It is only about 
one- tenth of an inch long, slender, much flattened, and of a chocolate- 



122 PRINCIPAL HOUSEHOLD INSECTS. 

brown color. The antennae are clavate, or club- shaped, and the thorax 
has two shallow, longitudinal grooves on the upper surface and bears 
six minute teeth like those of a saw on each side, as indicated at fig. 
59, a, 

The larva is somewhat depressed, and nearly white in color, with 
darker markings, as shown in the illustration (c). It has six legs and 
an abdominal proleg, and is exceedingly active, running about, nibbling 
here and there. 

When fully matured the larva fastens itself by means of some 
adhesive matter, evidently excrementitious, to any convenient surface, 
and thus attached transforms to pupa and afterward to imago. VYhen 
the insect is living in such granular substances as oatmeal and cracked 
wheat a delicate case is constructed of fragments of these materials, 
but when in flour and meal often no covering is made. From data 
acquired by experiment it is estimated that there may be six or seven 
generations of this insect annually in the latitude of the District of 
Columbia. During the summer months the life cycle requires but 
twenty-four days; in spring, from six to ten weeks. At Washington, 
it has been learned, the species winters over in the adult state, even in 
a well-warmed indoor temperature. 

THE CADELLE. 

(Tenebroides mauritanicus Linn.) 

The term "cadelle" was first proposed years ago in France for the 
larva of this insect. The Latin name was given to it in 1758, when it 
was described as a species of Tenebrio and classified with the meal- 
worms, the adult of which it very slightly resembles in its somber 
color and depressed elongate form. It belongs, however, to a distinct 
family, the Trogositidae, and is considerably smaller than the meal- 
worm beetles, measuring about a third of an inch. It is very dark, 
shining brown in color, much flattened, and of the somewhat oblong 
form indicated in the illustration (fig. 60, a). The antenna is shown, 
much enlarged on page 123. The general appearance of the larva is 
shown at c. It is fleshy and slender, measuring when full grown nearly 
three-fourths of an inch. It is whitish in color, with head and tip of 
the anal segment dark brown, the latter terminating in two dark cor- 
neous hooks. The three thoracic segments are also marked with dark 
brown, as indicated in the figure. The pupa (b) is white. 

There has always been a difference of opinion in regard to the nature 
of the food of Tenebroides mauritanicus, some claiming that the insect 
was carnivorous. It has been satisfactorily proven through experiment 
by the writer that the insect is both herbivorous and preclaceous. It is 
most often found in cereals and in nuts, but may be occasionally taken 
in other materials. 



INSECTS AFFECTING CEREALS, ETC. 



123 



If personal experience and divisional records be any criterion, this 
species excels all other grain feeders in its proclivity for obtruding its 
presence in unexpected places. It is a most unwelcome guest at all 
times, its large size, both in the larval and adult stages, rendering its 
appearance conspicuous, not to say alarming -or disgusting, to most 
persons. In the pages of Insect Life we have noted its presence in 
milk (Vol. I, p. 112), the evidence being that the milk had been adul- 
terated with some farinaceous material in which the beetle had lived as 
larva. On pages 314 and 360 it is mentioned as having tunneled for a 
long time through a flask of an insecticide (white hellebore) which was 




Fig. GO.—Tenebroides mauritanicus : a, adult beetle with greatly en- 
larged antenna above; b, pupa; c, larva — all enlarged (original). 



found by experiment to be of sufficient strength to kill currant worms. 
Again, on pages 274-275 of Volume VI we note the presence of this 
and other insects in refined sugar. Mr. R. S. Clifton, of this office, 
recently showed the writer a larva found in powdered sugar, with the 
information that the sugar had been returned promptly to the grocer 
of whom it had just been purchased. In granulated sugar the occur- 
rence of this and probably of other insects is generally the result of 
accident, as it has never been proven that insects breed in sugar in this 
condition. In the case of pulverized sugar, however, the presence of 
insects would at least create a suspicion of adulteration with flour. 



124 



PRINCIPAL HOUSEHOLD INSECTS. 



Contrary to the rule with regard to indoor species, there is every 
reason to believe that this insect is of American nativity. It differs 
also from most other storehouse species in being annual in its develop- 
ment, propagating, it is true, throughout the warm season, but bringing 
forth only a single brood each year. 

THE DRUG-STORE BEETLE AND ITS ALLIES. 
THE DRUG-STORE BEETLE. 

(Sitodrepa panicea Linn.) 

One of the commonest of storehouse pests is the little Sitodrepa 
panicea, a frequent visitor in habitations, which it enters at open 
windows. 

This beetle is a member of the family Ptinidse. It is cylindrical in 
form, measuring about a tenth of an inch in length, and is of a uniform 
light-brown color, with very fine, silky pubescence. The elytra are dis- 
tinctly striated and the antennas terminate in an elongate three jointed 




FlG. 61.— Sitodrepa panicea : a, larva; 6, pupa; c, beetle, dorsal view; d, lateral view— all much 
enlarged; e, antenna— more enlarged (author's illustration, reengraved). 

club. Fig. 61, c, shows the beetle with antennae extended, e represent- 
ing an antenna greatly enlarged. When at rest the head is retracted 
into the peculiar hood like thorax, as shown in profile at d, and with the 
legs and antennas folded under and tightly appressed to the body, the 
little creature easily escapes observation. The larva is white, with 
darker mouth-parts, and of the cylindrical curved form indicated at a. 
The characteristic form of the head and legs is reproduced at fig. 62. 
The pupa, illustrated at &, is white. 

The insect received its Latin name from its occurrence in dry bread 
(panis), and in Europe it is still known as the bread beetle, but its chief 
injuries are to druggists' supplies; hence the name drug- store beetle. 
Its depredations do not stop here, however, for it invades alike stores 
of all kinds, mills, granaries, and tobacco warehouses. Of household 
wares its preference is for flour, meal, breakfast foods, and condiments. 
It is especially partial to red pepper, and is often found in ginger, rhu- 
barb, chamomile, boneset, #nd other roots and herbs that were kept in 



INSECTS AFFECTING CEREALS, ETC. 125 

the farmhouse in our grandmothers' day. It also sometimes gets into 
dried beans and peas, chocolate, black pepper, powdered coffee, licorice, 
peppermint, almonds, and seeds of every description. 

The subject of injuries wrought by this species has formed the text 
of a considerable literature, going back to the year 1721, when Pastor 
Frisch found the larva feeding upon rye bread, and including, besides 
damage of the nature referred to, injury to drawings and paintings, 
manuscripts and books. Some singular instances are recorded of its 
injuries as a bookworm. The late Dr. Hagen wrote that he once saw 
"a whole shelf of theological books, two hundred years old, traveled 
through transversely" by the larva of this insect, and still another 
record is published of injury by this species,' or Ptinusfur, to twenty- 
seven folio volumes, which it is said were " perforated in a straight line 
by one and the same insect, and so regular was the tunnel that a string 
could be passed through the whole length of it 
and the entire set of books lifted up at once." 

In pharmacies it runs nearly the whole gamut 
of everything kept in store, from insipid gluten 
wafers to such acrid substances as wormwood, 
from the aromatic cardamom and anise to the 
deadly aconite and belladonna. It is particularly 
abundant in roots, such as orris and flag, and 
sometimes infests cantharides. 

It is recorded to have established a colony in a 
human skeleton which had been dried with the 
ligaments left on, and the writer has seen speci- 
mens taken from a mummy. It has even been F ™- f-Modrepa panicea: 

^ Head of. larva, shown above ; 

said to perforate tin foil and sheet lead, and that leg of larva beiow-much 
it will "eat anything except cast iron." In short, enlarged < ori s inal >- 
a whole chapter could be devoted to the food material of this insect, as 
nothing seems to come amiss to it and its voracious larva. The sub- 
ject may conclude with the statement that this Division has received 
complaints from four different correspondents of injury to gun wad- 
ding, and there are several records of injury to boots and shoes and 
sheet cork. 

The larvae bore into hard substances like roots, tunneling tbem in 
every direction, and feed also upon the powder which soon forms and 
is cast out of their burrows. In powdery substances the larvae form 
little round balls or cells, which become cocoons, in which they undergo 
transformation to pupae and then to the adult insect. I have reared 
the insect from egg to beetle in two months, and as it habitually lives 
in artificially heated buildings and breeds out through the winter 
months, there may be at least four broods in a moderately warm 
atmosphere. 

Minute as is this beetle, it is preyed upon by a still smaller parasite, 
a chalcis fly known as Meraporus calandrce How., which pursues its 




126 



PRINCIPAL HOUSEHOLD INSECTS. 



victim relentlessly, even entering insect boxes infested by its host, as 
the writer had once occasion to observe. A diminutive mite, Pedicu- 
loicles ventricosns Newp., also j)reys upon this as well as upon many other 
species of like habits, attacking- it in its larval and pupal condition. 



THE CIGARETTE BEETLE. 

(Lasioderma serricorne Fab.) 




Fig. 63. -^Lasioderma serricorne: a, larva; b, pupa; c, beetle; d, same, lateral view— all 
enlarged; e, antenna — much enlarged (author's illustration, reengraved). 

Another little beetle, superficially resembling the preceding species 
and having very similar habits, often occurs in houses. As its English 
name indicates, it is chiefly known as a destroyer of tobacco, and as such, 
in the opinion of many thinking people, should be classified with bene- 
ficial insects. It is by no means so common as the drug store beetle, 
but it is on the increase and doubtless will in time be found to'have 
nearly the same range of food materials. As a tobacco feeder it out- 
ranks that species, and also appears to favor 
certain medicinal plants not so often affected 
by the Sitodrepa. 

Of household supplies it has been found, 
in the experience of the writer as well as of 
others, infesting cayenne pepper, ginger, rhu- 
barb, rice, figs, yeast cakes, and prepared fish 
food. It has been reported as destructive to 
silk and plush upholstery, and has done con- 
siderable damage to dried and preserved 
herbarium specimens in Washington. Of 
drugs it is partial to ergot and turmeric, and 
tobacco it devours in every form, in the leaf 
and when made up into chewing plug, ciga- 
rettes, and cigars. 

This species is of about the same size and 
color as the drug store beetle, but, as may 
be seen in the figure (63, c), is more robust and the elytra are not 
striated. The head is more prominent and the antennae are nearly 
uniformly serrate, not ending in a three-jointed club (fig. 63, e). The 
larva, represented at d in curved position at rest, is more wrinkled 




Fig. 64. — Lasioderma serricorne: 
Head of larva, shown above : leg 
of larva below — much enlarged 
(original') . 



127 

and hairy than that of Sitodrepa, and differs as well in the structure of 
the head and legs (see fig. 64). The pupa, shown at fig. 63, &, is white 
and is incased, like other ptinids, in a fragile cocoon. 

THE WHITE-MARKED SPIDER BEETLE. 
(Ptinus fur Linn. ) 

Two more species of this same family and of somewhat similar habits 
to the two beetles just mentioned are sufficiently common in storerooms 
and cellars, particularly of old houses, and especially in the I^orth, to 
attract occasional notice. The more important of these is Ptinus fur, 
which may be called the white-marked spider beetle, to distinguish it 
from the allied Pt. brunneus, which is uniform brown in color. This 
beetle is reddish brown, with four white bands on its elytra. It has 
long antenna? and legs and a more or less globular body, and strongly 
suggests a spider in general appearance. The £exes differ considerably, 
the female being much more robust than her consort. 

As long ago as 1766 Linnaeus gave an account of this species, which 
he stated was very injurious in libraries. It occurs also in old barns, 
warehouses, and. museums, and is credited with feeding upon a variety 
of substances, vegetable and animal, including insect collections and 
dried plants in herbaria. It has also been recorded as living in boxes oi 
red pepper, and during March of the year 1896 was so reported by Mr. 
E. 0. Lyle, who furnished us with specimens in the infested substance 
brought from his home at Cedar Springs, Mich. Many years ago it 
was severely injurious to flour at Versailles, France, and recently Dr. 
James Fletcher received complaints of its occurring abundantly in 
flour at Orillia and Toronto, Canada. 

During 1894 we received specimens of this insect, with information 
that they had been discovered near Concord, 1ST. H., in a barn in 
which were stored a hundred or more bags of cotton seed. They had 
devoured the bags and increased so enormously as to cover the build- 
ings; had invaded neighboring houses, and were attacking clothing of 
all kinds. The owner of this barn, who also conducted a store, was 
greatly alarmed for fear they would spread throughout the town, and 
serious apprehension was felt in the infested locality that the insect 
might become a public nuisance. 

When to the items just mentioned we add that Dr. George Dimmock 
found this species swarming in a barrel of refuse wool covered with 
sheep's dung, and in which it was doubtless breeding, and that, to the 
writer's personal knowledge, the adults are attracted to fresh fruit, we 
sum up the principal facts known regarding this insect in America; 
but if we are to believe all the bad things that are said of it in Europe, 
it is capable of becoming a serious pest if once permitted to gain 
sufficient headway, for it is accused of depredating upon furs and cloth- 
ing, roots, grain, and stuffed animals, and of invading seed stores, 
apothecaries' wares, and cracker stores. 



128 PRINCIPAL HOUSEHOLD INSECTS. 

The larva is white and of the usual ptinid form, quite similar to that 
of the drug-store beetle, and feeds, like that species, in a little globu- 
lar case of delicate construction and composed of the material that it 
infests, aud which it cements loosely together. The development of 
this species is said to be annual in Europe. It has been carried 
through all its transformations here at Washington in about three and 
a half months, the pupal period lasting thirteen days. 

The adult beetles are nocturnal and may be found in the dead of 
winter crawling upon the walls of cellars and unheated buildings. 

THE BROWN SPIDER BEETLE. 
(Ptinus brunneus Duft.) 

The last of the domestic PtinidaB that will require special notice is. 
the one above mentioned, and which, as previously stated, differs from 
its congener chiefly in lacking the white marking on its elytra. Nor is 
there probably any degree of difference in habits and life history 
beyond the recorded list of food materials observed for each species. 
Both occur in the same locations, not unusually living together in 
apparent harmony. Like Pt. fur, it is disposed to be omnivorous and 
is somewhat of a scavenger, frequenting cellars and attics, storehouses, 
henhouses, and jjigeon lofts, being competent to eke out a living almost 
anywhere where anything animal or vegetable is stored. Among the 
different substances that afford it sustenance are books, feathers, skins, 
dried mushrooms, and the excrement of rats and other domestic 
animals. It sometimes gets into drugs, aud is recorded to have attacked 
musk root and the powdered leaves of senna and jaborandi. 

SPECIES OF OCCASIONAL OCCURRENCE IN VEGETABLE STORES. 

The following insects are so often found in dry vegetable foods as to 
deserve brief mention. Like preceding species, they are cosmopolitan 
in distribution and occur in the greatest numbers in tropical climates. 

The granary weevil (Calandra granaria Linn.), a small dark-brown 
species about an eighth of an inch long, is very partial to the pearled 
barley used in the preparation of soups, and the chick pea, a legumi- 
nous seed cultivated for the same purpose in tropical countries. 

A similar species, the rice weevil (C. oryza Linn.), which, with the 
preceding, is most destructive in stored grain, as an adult insect some- 
times invades boxes of cakes, crackers, yeast cakes, macaroni, and 
similar breadstuff's, and is said to attack chestnuts, bird seed, and even 
to injure tobacco. It also breeds in rice and in cracked corn and other 
cereals that are sufficiently coarse for the purpose. 

Two weevils belonging to the family Bruchidse, of wide distribution, 
and known respectively as the pea weevil (Bruchus pisorum Linn.) and 
the bean weevil (B. obtectus Say), lay their eggs upon ripening peas and 
beans in our gardens and thence find their way to our tables, being 






INSECTS AFFECTING CEREALS, ETC. 129 

often eaten when in the larval condition, safely screened from view in 
these esculent legumes. The former species is restricted to the pea for 
food, and though it passes the winter in peas that are kept in store, does 
not breed, as does the latter, for successive generations in the same 
seed. 

Still another weevil (Arcecerus fasciculatus DeG.), a member of the 
family Anthribidse, and for which is proposed the name "coffee-bean 
weevil," occurred in abundance during the year 1895 in a local grocery 
store, having been reported to us by a purchaser who found numbers of 
the beetles in dried apples. This species infests, besides coffee beans 
and dried apples, mace, nutmegs, chocolate beans, and the roots of a 
species of ginger. 

Certain species of Dermestidse, it has recently been learned, in addi- 
tion to a diet of dried animal matter, attack cereals and other vegetable 
products. The commonest of these is the black carpet beetle (Attagenus 
piceus Oliv.), an account of which, by Dr. Howard, has appeared in pre- 
ceding pages. Its larva breeds in cereals, ground and whole, and has 
been reared from millet, pumpkin, and timothy seed. Trogoderma tar- 
sale Melsh. has similar habits, and has been found living in grain, flax- 
seed, castor beans, cayenne pepper, millet and pumpkin seeds, pea- 
nuts, and meal and cake manufactured from them. Anthrenus verbasci 
Linn., a near relative of the so-called " buffalo moth" treated in pre- 
vious pages, has nearly the same food habits as the two preceding 
species. 

A grain beetle known as Cathartus advena Waltl, of the same family 
as Silvanus surinamensis, has similar habits to the latter, but is much 
rarer in stored products. It has been taken by the writer in cereals, 
dry dates, figs, and cacao beans. 

Lmmoplilceus pusillus Sch., another cucujid beetle, smaller, flatter, 
and with longer antennae than the preceding, occurs in flour, meal, 
grain, etc., but, as it is at least partially predaceous, does little harm. 

Several small species of the family Mtidulidae are at times very 
injurious to dried fruits, but seldom occur abundantly in this country, 
except in the South. One of the commonest of these is Carpophilus 
hemipterus Linn. 

A gray moth of the genus Ephestia, related to the Indian-meal moth, 
sometimes occurs with this latter in nuts and fruits. It is about equally 
common in English walnuts, and its pinkish-striped larvae do consider- 
able injury to dried figs. 

The Angoumois grain moth (Sitotroga cerealella Ol.), a destructive 
granary insect, is very injurious to popcorn, and infests also rice and 
and other cereals. 

REMEDIES. 

A considerable percentage of injury to the dried vegetable products 
of the household may be prevented by a moderate degree of care when 
purchasing, and in storing in tight receptacles in cool, dry rooms. 
21470— No. 4 9 



130 PRINCIPAL HOUSEHOLD INSECTS. 

The vegetable foods most subject to injury are prepared cereals. If 
any of these be badly infested at the time of purchase it will be plainly 
evident; if only a moderate number of insects be present and it be 
desirable to store the material for some length of time, by sifting over 
a large sheet of paper of light color, using a fine sieve for flour and 
corn meal and a coarser one for cracked wheat and like foods, the pres- 
ence of infesting insects may be detected. 

Most people object to the use of flour, meal, and other material for 
the preparation of food if it be at all infested with insects, and to save 
trouble will promptly return such material to the merchant of whom it 
was purchased. If, however, infestation be not at once detected, the 
dealer may in some cases refuse to receive the injured stuff unless the 
cause of the trouble can be directly traced to his store or to the milling 
company or wholesale dealer of whom it was originally obtained. If 
food stuffs are not too badly infested they are not dangerous, and are 
useful for consumption by human beings, disagreeable as the traces of the 
insects' presence may be. It is sometimes advisable, if not absolutely 
necessary, to save such material, as for example when on a protracted 
journey, where better is not to be had. 

After what has been said regarding the development of the flour 
beetles and other insects it should be superfluous to add that it is 
impossible to entirely free infested material by sifting, as the eggs and 
younger larvae slip through the finest meshes. Most insects may be 
destroyed by placing the material infested in the oven at a moderate 
degree of heat, from 125° to 150° F., but care must be exercised not to 
expose it to a higher temperature. Corn meal, particularly, is easily 
overheated, and afterwards, unless it is soon to be used in cooking, is 
apt to become rancid. 

If a barrel of flour or large quantity of other provisions becomes 
infested, as is apt to happen during the absence of a family from home, 
bisulphide of carbon, a liquid chemical in general use against insects 
in mills, elevators, granaries, and warehouses, should be used to dis- 
infect it. The same reagent is the best insecticide for use when whole 
rooms are to be fumigated. 

A small quantity of the chemical is sufficient for the disinfection of a 
barrel of flour, as the insects for the most part live only in the flour at 
the top, being unable to withstand the pressure of a large weight of 
material. From a half to a whole teacupful (about 2 to 5 ounces) of the 
bisulphide will prove sufficient for the purpose in an ordinary case, 
provided the cover be replaced as tightly as possible. In more severe 
cases of infestation it may be necessary to repeat the application. The 
bisulphide is poured into shallow pans or plates placed upon the top of 
the infested mass and the receptacle covered ac: closely as possible and 
left for a day or more. This chemical is extremely volatile, and being 
heavier than air, descends as a gas, killing such insects as the material 
may contain. When an entire room or building is overrun with insects, 



INSECTS AFFECTING CEREALS, ETC. 131 

the bisulphide is evaporated at the rate of a pound to every 1,000 feet 
of cubic space. 

The vapor of this chemical is deadly to all animal life, but there is 
no danger in inhaling a small quantity, and although it has a powerful 
and disagreeable odor, this soon passes away without any after effects 
and without harming for food such material as it may be used upon. 
The vapor is also inflammable, but if no fire, as, for example, a lighted 
cigar, be brought into the immediate vicinity until the fumes have 
entirely disappeared, no trouble will be experienced. 

Bisulphide of carbon costs, at retail, from 20 to 30 cents a pound$ at 
wholesale, in 50-pound cans, 10 cents a pound. 






